Joe Pulliam is the subject of “Healing of the Dragonfly,” a short film to be showcased in the Shining Mountains Film Festival next weekend. Pulliam, a ledger artist, used his work to overcome addiction and find empowerment.
Joe Pulliam has created paintings as a ledger artist — watercolors on pages from government accounting ledger books and other antique, official documents — for more than a decade, realizing a life of sobriety along the way.
Pulliam, a graphic designer by trade and a member of the Oglala Lakota Nation from the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, is the subject of “Healing of the Dragonfly,” a short-film selection to this year’s Shining Mountains Film Festival next weekend at the Wheeler Opera House. The festival is a screening of shorts, feature films and documentaries produced and directed by Native American artists.
“Healing of the Dragonfly” documents Pulliam’s life from leaving and returning to his home on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota in his youth and serving in the military to opening an art gallery exclusively with his work and his last exhibition in Rapid City, South Dakota.
“After I came home from the service, I fell straight into addiction and the lifestyle that comes with that — violence and poverty. That was my life for over 20 years,” Pulliam said.
After being born on the Pine Ridge Reservation, his parents relocated to St. Paul, Minnesota when he was a 1 year old and returned to Pine Ridge when he was 10. After high school, Pulliam joined the Army and served with the 7th Infantry Division out of Fort Ord in Monterey Bay, California.
Ledger artist Joe Pulliam sometimes uses old maps for his watercolors. Pulliam likens his art on antique documents to “counting coup,” an Indigenous battle tradition in which the warrior attempts to defeat an opponent without killing them by means of intimidation and prestige.
Pulliam had an epiphany when he realized the average lifespan for an Oglala man on the reservation is 48 years.
“When I turned 48 years old my children were pressuring me that they wanted a better life for all of us, so I decided to quit drinking,” Pulliam said.
Pulliam has four grandchildren — with another on the way — and two children, aged 3 and 4 years old, from what he says is “a blessing in my sobriety with another life and a new beginning was having children with my wife. It was a perfect reminder of what I’m fighting for and what we need to fight for — these young babies and children relying on us.”
For his art, he scours Etsy and eBay for antique paper, including antique maps, old stock certificates, and even old checks. He recently completed a couple of watercolor paintings on paper manufactured in the 1840s.
“All these things represent capitalism and a system that was responsible for the destruction of my culture and the destruction of land and water,” Pulliam said.
He added that his work is like “counting coup,” an Indigenous tradition symbolized by daring acts in battle without causing harm to opponents.
Last week, “Healing of the Dragonfly” premiered at LA Skins Fest — a prestigious Native American film festival at the famed TCL Chinese Theatre. This week, the film’s director Nina Barbier reached out to Pulliam about working on a feature-length project, he said.
“I’m sitting here with my mind going 1,000 miles an hour,” Pulliam said.
Pulliam is now processing the whirlwind of affirmations for both the film and his art.
“It takes the message of empowerment and healing to another level. This journey has been a godsend for me because I’m a big believer that things are meant to be for a reason. The Creator sent me to Rapid City and gave me these opportunities for a reason,” Pulliam said. “In my former life, I would have thrown all that away because of addiction, depression, poverty and all of the things that come with that. Now, I have hope and want to live in that new hope.”
Pulliam will have framed originals and prints for sale at the festival, where his story and many others of Indigenous artists will be on display.
In its fifth year, the festival is presented by the Aspen Indigenous Foundation. It began in 2019 to commemorate the first anniversary of Aspen adopting a resolution to discontinue the observance of Columbus Day and instead celebrate Indigenous Peoples’ Day.
Bart Powaukee will be the master of ceremonies for the Shining Mountains Film Festival on Dec. 1 and 2 at the Wheeler Opera House. It will be the fifth iteration of the festival.
Deanne Vitrac-Kessler, founder and executive director of the AIF and the film festival, said the festival is “a platform to educate non-Indian communities about the true history, genocide, challenges, struggles as well as sharing the rich Native culture, talents, wisdom and traditional ways,” in a press release.
At 6 p.m. on Friday, a Ute tribe member will open the weekend with a blessing prayer in the Ute language, and the closing ceremony on Saturday will be led by two-time World Champion Fancy Dancer Larry Yazzie. He is also the founder and artistic director of Native Pride Productions, based in St. Paul, Minnesota, and is from the Meskwaki Nation in Tama, Iowa. The master of ceremonies for the weekend will be Bart Powaukee, a member of the Northern Ute tribe.
“Lakota Nation vs. United States” will be shown on Friday, chronicling the Lakota Indians’ fight to reclaim the Black Hills of South Dakota and Wyoming. The rest of the film programming will be on Saturday, starting at 2 p.m. “Healing of the Dragonfly” is scheduled to show second in Saturday’s first program.
Directors, producers or actors will be on hand for Q&A sessions after each screening, and awards will be presented to filmmakers in Best Long, Best Short, and Audience Choice categories. There will also be a live dancing performance exhibition and Native American art for sale in the lobby area.
For the programming schedule and ticket information, visit shiningmountainsfilm.com.
