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| Les At Spring Roundup |
Working on the historic Hansen Ranch as a young man, to working the stock at the Jackson Rodeo, instilled in me a love of the American Cowboy. From my home in Dubois Wyoming, I look forward each spring to roundup time with my good friend, John Sides.
On his 20,000 acre cattle ranch in South Dakota each year we relive what ranchers and cowboys have done since cattle were introduced to the west . Little has changed in a hundred years and the experience and camaraderie is all cowboy.
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| Les and Moses Brings Plenty |
The period of 1820 to 1880 on the western plains was the most colorful in American history. Unfortunately, I was born too late to experience it first hand.
Through my years working with Indians from the Pine Ridge Reservation and the Wind River Reservation I have had the privilege to meet the grandsons and granddaughters of participants in the Battle of The Greasy Grass or as the white man refers to it, The Battle of the Little Big Horn . Moses Brings Plenty is the great grandson of a participant and survivor of the battle. Their grandparents were some of the last Indians to freely roam the plains.
As the west was settled by the Euro-Americans, the Native Americans were decimated and driven from their ancestral lands. Their history and culture were being erased forever. Through my research and paintings, I am able to recreate a little part of it for myself as well as others to enjoy.
Through my years working with Indians from the Pine Ridge Reservation and the Wind River Reservation I have had the privilege to meet the grandsons and granddaughters of participants in the Battle of The Greasy Grass or as the white man refers to it, The Battle of the Little Big Horn . Moses Brings Plenty is the great grandson of a participant and survivor of the battle. Their grandparents were some of the last Indians to freely roam the plains.
As the west was settled by the Euro-Americans, the Native Americans were decimated and driven from their ancestral lands. Their history and culture were being erased forever. Through my research and paintings, I am able to recreate a little part of it for myself as well as others to enjoy.