“The Picture is the Rope”: Listening to the Strands Lecture by Rodney G. Thomas, Colonel, U.S. Army (Retired)

Free and Open to the public.

Join us for a special lecture presented in conjunction with The Unfinished War: The Battle of the Little Bighorn in Native American Art.

In this talk, Rodney G. Thomas explores how Native pictographic artworks documenting the Battle of the Little Bighorn function as historical records as well as works of art. Through an introduction to the visual language of Plains pictography—including composition, symbolic imagery, and narrative structure—Thomas will guide visitors in “listening” to the stories embedded within these powerful images.

The lecture will also provide a brief overview of the battle itself, establishing a shared understanding of the key events, locations, and outcomes of the fighting. From there, the program will examine how Native artists recorded these moments visually, preserving testimony and experience through pictographic illustration.

By exploring both the historical context of the battle and the artistic traditions used to depict it, this program invites audiences to better understand the people behind the artwork and why the story of the Little Bighorn remains, in many ways, unfinished.