Lakota Culture: Painting Analysis

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First and foremost, the claim is hardship in war period. In the painting, a man is plowing soil with the help of two horses. The man probably is not a farmer as his cloth is neat, clean and still in a good condition which is not like other farmers who usually are dirty and messy. The man might be forced to be a farmer to earn a living to support his family after his property was taken away by the authority for military expenditure as there is quite a number of soldiers are hiding in between the ploughed ground. Therefore, this may represent the efforts of people might be looted under the threat from authority for the military purposes. In addition, dark green represents ambitious and greedy while olive green has a strong military meaning (Bourn, …show more content…

From the painting, we can see that the soldiers are ready to protect their country as they are armed with machine gun to guard against the enemy to gain a peaceful life. In Lakota culture, west represents black, the sun sets and the day ends which also signifies the end of life. In the contrary, east is the direction of sun comes, so it is the beginning of a new day (Zeilinger, 2016). Most of the soldiers are pointing their gun to the west which means that they are fighting against the dark side for their country and move towards to a new life. Other than that, brown is the colour of earth and it represents security, healing, home and stability (Bourn, 2010). The soldiers believe that they will win the war and get back to their peaceful and happy life since brown colour gives them the feeling of home and stability. Besides that, the hind legs of two horses are seem to be tied together to show they are constrained as well. An American Baptist minister, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said that we are tied together in the single garment of destiny, caught in an inescapable network of mutuality because this is the way God’s universe is made; this is the way it is structured (Albere, 2015). Animals are also living creature on the earth, therefore they cannot escape from the fate of hard life during war time. But, the bitter must come before the sweet, when the man walks from dark to light side, he is walking toward hope and peace. This is because white is an inherently positive colour, is associated with light, heaven, safety and protection (Bourn,