“Five Crows Account” 12 x 12 Oil on Canvas  

Currently on exhibit at Prairie Edge Gallery, Rapid City, SD

This painting records an image drawn by a Flathead chief known as Shil-che-lum-e-la, translated to Five Crows (or Five Ravens).   He was also known by his baptismal name of Ambrose.  Five Crows worked closely with a Jesuit priest, De Smet, who acquired this ledger between 1841 – 1847.  Five Crows completed 11 of the drawings in the ledger that bears his name, and is currently in the archives of the Jesuit Missouri Provence Archives in St. Louis. 

According to the notes De Smet added to the ledger, this image depicts Flathead lodges (X’s) a path (hoof imprints), the artist Ambrose in the front of the horse, and an enemy, a Blackfoot behind Ambrose on the horse.  Ambrose tricked the enemy into mounting onto the rear of his horse during battle as he thought him a fellow Blackfoot.   Ambrose then stole the gun, and killed him with it.