Amos Bad Heart Bull

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Amos Bad Heart Bull (c. 1868–1913), also called Waŋblí Wapȟáha or Eagle Bonnet, was an Oglala Lakota artist and tribal historian. He worked in Ledger Art, a style that uses paper to tell Lakota stories and history, adapting traditional pictographs drawn on hides.

Amos was the son of Bad Heart Bull, a noted tribal historian, and grew up with the Soreback Band. He lived through the era of upheaval after the Battle of the Little Bighorn in 1875, when he was eight. His family moved several times after the Great Sioux War and eventually settled at Pine Ridge.

From a young age, Amos showed an interest in Oglala history and drew pictures of lifeways and events. He learned English while serving as an Indian scout in the U.S. Army, starting in 1890 at Fort Robinson. During this time he bought a ledger book and began drawing on its pages, turning Lakota pictographs into paper pictures. Ledger Art grew from this practice and is linked to earlier ledgers used by imprisoned Native men.

After leaving the Army, Amos worked as a small cattleman and, like his father, served as the tribal historian. He received a land allotment on Pine Ridge after the Dawes Act and lived near Oglala, South Dakota. He married Sophia; they had a daughter, Victoria, who died in infancy, and Sophia died in 1910. Amos died on August 3, 1913. His sketchbook went to his sister Dolly Pretty Cloud.

In the 1930s and 1940s, scholars photographed his drawings. They helped publish his work in books such as Sioux Indian Painting (1938) and A Pictographic History of the Oglala Sioux (1967). His art influenced the design of the Nebraska State Capitol’s East Chamber. His Lakota name čhaŋtéšiče means “he has a bad heart,” but it is understood idiomatically as “sad bull.”