Signature artwork - Pauline Bates Medicine Wheel
The Story Behind the Painting
The Book “In Search of Spirit, A Sioux Family Memoir” and the Painting
The painting of Pauline Bates, Medicine Wheel is based on the mother of Mr. V. Ed Bates who wrote the book "In Search of Spirit". The painting is 36 X 48 inches and is multi-media, oil painting, acrylic pen and ink and gold leaf. This painting is for sale. Please use contact form to inquire.
About Pauline Bates and Author V. Ed Bates:
"If ancestors are to be honored the trail must return full circle to where it began". Ed Bates.
This story is a tribute to V. Ed Bates, his family and ancestors, who passed on in 2020, having left an important legacy and much loved by his family and friends. A moving excerpt from his book; Ed Bates book, writing about how his mother taught canteyuke, to her sons, the Lakota word means “to share and have a heart”. The following is an old Lakota saying Ed quotes.
"No tree has branches as foolish as to fight among themselves".
This family belief reflected Pauline Bates' determination to keep her six sons together at all costs.
“In Search of Spirit" is an important Native American memoir that encompasses some of the most famous events and frontier characters in Western American history, including eyewitness reports of the Ghost Dance, the Wounded Knee Massacre of 1890, and the Buffalo Bill Wild West Show. The author, V. Edward Bates is an enrolled member of the Yankton Lakota Tribe.” Ed said that he originally wrote the book for his family, and then later decided to publish it.
Meeting the Bates Family
Several years ago, Mr. Howard Bryan (1920-2011), a renowned journalist from the Albuquerque Tribune and a western writer, invited me to the home of a distinguished scholar to celebrate Howard’s ninetieth birthday. I first met Howard when he came to my home to interview my mother for his newspaper column, “Off the Beaten Path” for the Albuquerque Tribune. I was in my twenties. Mother was visiting from Japan and generously volunteered to sing at a charity event. Howard came to my home to interview mother, and they got along so well, talking for hours into the night. Over the years, Howard became a father figure for me, and he, my mother and I, kept in touch with him.
Howard’s 90th birthday party was held at a spectacular adobe home in the northwest valley in Albuquerque. Our host at the party was a renowned New Mexican history professor. The professor and I spoke about Native American cultures. He said he had a book that a friend of his wrote that he wished to give me. He went into his library, returned to the living room, and gifted to me the book titled “In Search of Spirit, A Sioux Family Memoir” by V. Ed Bates, a Yankton Lakota tribal member. I was thrilled. After reading the book I wished to paint a portrait of Mr. Bates’ mother, Pauline Bates, depicted on the cover of the book. I contacted Ed Bates in Spokane, Washington to discuss this portrait.
Meeting Ed Bates and the Bates family in Spokane, Washington
Ed Bates was very happy that I would create a painting of his mother whom he called “Our Last Woman Warrior”. He gave me permission to use family photos and excerpts from his book, a truly generous man. When the painting of his mother was finished, Ed invited me to unveil the painting at Annie’s Bookshop in Spokane, Washington where Ed had a book signing. I flew up to Spokane for the unveiling of the painting and Ed and his wife Patti hosted me at their home, a beautiful experience.
After returning to New Mexico, I recalled conversations I had with Mr. Bates. It is a very important book depicting his Yankton Lakota family going back to the 1800s. Over the years I have painted several portraits of the Bates ancestors.
Footnote: “In Search of Spirit, A Sioux Family Memoir” is out of print at this time but can be read on eBooks.
