Lakota Horse Spirit Original Acrylic Painting

This painting captures the beauty of the native American horse and the significance of the horse to their culture.   

Artist: William M Humphrey

Size: 9" x 12" original acrylic painting.  

For Native Americans, painting a warhorse was a sacred act that held power not only in the paints made from Nature but the painted symbols, too.

In Native American cultures, horses meant power, wealth and survival. To paint a horse for battle or for a buffalo hunt was a sacred act, believed to enhance power for both horse and rider—spiritually and physically. It was serious business and could mean life or death.

Although the symbolism of war horse painting was not monolithic across native cultures, there were some prevalent themes. The most common link was the belief of kinship with nature, the earth and all its animals, and the conviction that nature imparted a vital power in the paints themselves and the symbols too, brought power to horse and rider.