David Dragonfly is a ledger artist and enrolled member of the Blackfeet Tribe, living in Browning, Montana. Raised on the Blackfeet Reservation, Dragonfly attended the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico. There he learned stone carving, jewelry and printmaking. Dragonfly also has a BFA from the University of Montana, where he studied with notable art professors Don Bunse and James G. Todd.
Dragonfly's art blends aspects of his Blackfeet and Assiniboine roots, and pays respect to his Native heritage by embracing the history of resistance and survival embedded in traditional ledger art. His images are often reminiscent of the Plains Indian pictographic art found in Montana and Canada, a style with very clean lines and broad, bold colors.
Dragonfly has exhibited work at the Colorado Indian Art Market, the Great Falls Native American Art Show, the Big Sky Indian Art Market, Northern Plains Tribal Arts and other venues. In 2006, David was the featured artist at the Harvest Moon Ball, an annual fundraiser held at the East Glacier Lodge, in support of the Blackfeet Community Foundation.
Ledger art is based on traditions of chronicling events pictorially on materials like rocks and buffalo hides practiced by Plains, Plateau, and Great Basin peoples. Beginning in the mid-19th century, as buffalo hides became less plentiful, these peoples used pages of ledger books obtained from settlers. Renewed interest in the art form emerged in the 1960s and 1970s. The Newberry, home to one of the largest collections of ledger art in the world describes it as “part of a long tradition of Native people documenting their history on their own terms. Ledger art is one way that some Native communities counter harmful stereotypes, reassert their cultural continuity and sovereignty, and emphasize connections through time.”