Merlin Little Thunder

Merlin Little Thunder is a Southern Cheyenne artist living in Tulsa, Oklahoma. His paintings express the history, people and the land in a narrative, representational style, especially from the perspective of the Southern Cheyenne people. He is well known for his miniature paintings, bright colors, and for the incorporation of humor into his work.

Born in Clinton OK at the Clinton Indian Hospital, Little Thunder was raised in the town of Canton, Oklahoma, in the Southern Cheyenne community of Fonda. His great-grandfather, Frank Old Bear, performed with the Miller 101 Ranch Wild West Show. His uncle, Raymond Williams, was an amateur artist who could look at something once and then reproduce it but never turned his talent into a career. Little Thunder described growing up in Canton as "an Indian kid's paradise."

Education

Little Thunder went to Longdale Elementary and then moved to Okmulgee, OK and went to Lee School while his father, George, attended Okmulgee Tech on the GI Bill. After his father finished school the family eventually moved to Enid, OK and Little Thunder attended Adams and then Harrison Elementary. Eventually his family moved back to Canton and Little Thunder returned to Longdale through the eighth grade and then graduated from Canton High School in 1975. After graduation, Little Thunder began taking classes at Southwestern Oklahoma State College in 1975, majoring in pre-pharmacy.

Little Thunder transferred to Bacone College in Muskogee, Oklahoma in 1976 because he wanted a smaller setting, still majoring in pre-pharmacy. When he transferred to Eastern Oklahoma State College in Wilburton, Oklahoma, he changed his major to art. He left college in 1980 for factory work. Later Little Thunder moved to Tulsa and met Jim Hewlett, a collector of Indian art, who bought drawings and paintings from Little Thunder and gave him space to work.

Little Thunder is best known for his miniature work. He describes his art as coming from a spiritual experience which spurred his drawing and focuses on Cheyenne subject matter painted largely from memory. Humor is very important in Little Thunder's work and likes his work to "poke fun at history." Little Thunder is known for landscapes with 19th century Cheyenne subjects. He is also known for medicine paintings which he describes as more spiritual in nature and without artistic limitations. He has developed a reputation for his 1950s period work inspired by his great grandfather’s experiences riding in cattle drives and performing with the 101 Ranch show. Little Thunders artwork can be seen in the collections of the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art, the Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History, the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum, and the Museum of the American Indian.

Famous Artworks

The following is a list of a few of Little Thunders famous works of art.

• "Tornado warning at 3 a.m." depicts his grandmother, Daisy Little Thunder, and her family rushing into a cellar to escape a tornado
• "Keeping an eye on the defense secretary" which depicts a humorous, fictional event inspired by press reports of Defense Secretary Nominee John Tower’s drinking problem. Three Indian scouts are watching a man floating downriver in canoe with a brown jug
• "A pillory can out preach a parson" 1990 features a Cheyenne man and a Huichol Indian man who have been put into the stocks for drinking
• "The Time Queen Ann Got Ditched Around Hog Creek" depicting two Indians intently discussing a Queen Anne chest of drawers.

• McDonnell, Brandy (22 April 2007). "Attention to details distinguishes artist Merlin Little Thunder's miniature paintings convey Indian humor, spirituality". NewsOK. Retrieved 29 April 2015. 
• Pearson-Little Thunder, Julie. "Oral history interview with Merlin Little Thunder". Spotlighting Oklahoma Oral History Project. Oklahoma Oral History Research Project. Retrieved 25 May 2015. 
• Devlin, Jeanne M. (1990). "The New Masters: Oklahoma Indian Painters and Sculptors of Note" (PDF). Oklahoma Today. 40 (6): 35. 
• McDonnell, Brandy (22 April 2007). "Attention to details distinguishes artist Merlin Little Thunder's miniature paintings convey Indian humor, spirituality". NewsOK. Retrieved 29 April 2015. 
• Pearson-Little Thunder, Julie. "Oral history interview with Merlin Little Thunder". Spotlighting Oklahoma Oral History Project. Oklahoma Oral History Research Project. Retrieved 25 May 2015. 
• McDonnell, Brandy (22 April 2007). "Attention to details distinguishes artist Merlin Little Thunder's miniature paintings convey Indian humor, spirituality". NewsOK. Retrieved 29 April 2015. 
• Pearson, Julie (1993). "Across the Range: Riding the Tornado in which an Old Man, a Young Girl, and a New Bride Meet Mother Nature Face to Face" (PDF). Oklahoma Today. 43 (3): 19–23. Retrieved 25 May 2015. 
• Devlin, Jeanne M. (1990). "The New Masters: Oklahoma Indian Painters and Sculptors of Note" (PDF). Oklahoma Today. 40 (6): 35. 
• Devlin, Jeanne M. (1990). "The New Masters: Oklahoma Indian Painters and Sculptors of Note" (PDF). Oklahoma Today. 40 (6): 35. 
• "Merlin Little Thunder to exhibit at The Jacobson House" (3A). Native American Times. 1 April 2003. Retrieved 25 May 2015. 

Little Thunder has won numerous First Places in miniature and in water-based painting at the Trail of Tears Art Show and at Santa Fe Indian Market. He was awarded the Moscelyn Larkin Cultural Award from the Tulsa Commission on Indian Affairs in 2010. He has shown with the Tulsa Indian Art Festival since the 1990s. and was named Honored One at the 2015 Red Earth Indian Arts Festival.