Andrew Standing Soldier, a Sioux artist of the Oglala Lakota Nation, completed the Arrival Celebration and The Round-Up when he was twenty-two, installing the murals in Blackfoot, Idaho’s Main Post Office. Gilbert Stanley Underwood constructed the Blackfoot MPO in 1936 in the Art Deco style, seen specifically through details such as the foliage motif that decorates the building’s exterior columns. When researchers placed the building onto the National Register of Historic Places in 1989, it was the sole federally-constructed post office in Idaho built in the Art Deco style. The building continues to operate as a post office today.
\nAndrew Standing Soldier was born in 1917 on South Dakota’s Pine Ridge Reservation. He was taught to draw by his father, Martin Standing Soldier. During the 1930s, he studied art under the Swedish muralist Olle Nordmark, a Pine Ridge artist-in-residence who was known for his mural work in New York. Nordmark went on to supervise Standing Soldier during the creation of the MPO murals. With his individualistic, western-focused style and well-drawn horses, Standing Soldier painted the post office murals through a government commission after he submitted sketches of his ideas.
\nStanding Soldier painted the five-panel Arrival Celebration and Round-Up with a realistic and Regionalist style under the Treasury Section of Fine Arts (TSFA), as a part of a six-mural project in Idaho funded by New Deal-era projects. The works cover all of the post office’s walls excluding the front wall and contains scenes based on life sketches depicting the everyday life of the Shoshone-Bannock peoples who live on the Fort Hall, Idaho, reservation. Their ancestral lands make up present day Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Wyoming, and parts of Canada.
\nThe Arrival Celebration and The Round-Up depict the western life of the Shoshone-Bannock peoples as they go about their day. In the background, he painted the distinct scenery of the vast Eastern Snake River Plain and the feeding ground that it provided for cattle. Along the mural’s wide expanse, the artist included scenes such as families travelling with horse-drawn wagons, people conversing on horseback, preparing covered wagons, cutting wood, and making meals with cattle roaming in the background. Standing Soldier also filled the scene with depictions of the traditional tipi dwellings of the tribes. The Round-Up portion of the mural shows a group of people as they work to rope and brand cattle.
\nHis murals reflect the aims of the Treasury Section of Fine Arts in employing artists as well as establishing a western identity in art that everyday people could see for free in their day-to-day lives as they ran errands at the post office. Indeed, most New Deal-funded murals did not portray the Great Depression’s troubles, but rather displayed regional scenes of optimistic imagery and scenes of conviviality like the group cooking scene portrayed in Standing Soldier’s work.
\n\n","sponsor":null,"accessinfo":"","lede":"Andrew Standing Soldier completed the expansive Blackfoot Main Post Office murals in 1939 at the age of twenty-two. Covering nearly every office wall, the murals depict scenes of the Shoshone-Bannock peoples and their lives in Idaho’s Eastern Snake River Plain.","website":"","related_resources":["Chlouber, Carla. “Grad. Researches Indian Artist.” Chadron Record. August 9, 1978. ","“Culture and History.” Shoshone-Bannock Tribes, accessed November 16, 2022. https://www.sbtribes.com/about/. ","Lake, Esther. “Standing Soldier’s Artistry Lives.” Idaho State Journal. May 2, 1971.","“National Register of Historic Places Registration Form: Blackfoot Main Post Office.” National Parks Service Digital Asset Management System, 1989. https://npgallery.nps.gov/NRHP/AssetDetail/ca3fa04f-2451-4cdd-ab1a5f2a8ee29c82.","Strahorn, Robert E. and the Union Pacific Railroad Company. The Resources and Attractions of Idaho; Facts on Farming, Stock Raising, Mining, Lumbering, and other Industries, and Notes on Climate, Scenery, Game, Fish, and Health and Pleasure Resorts. With the Compliments of the Passenger Department. Chicago: Rand, McNally & Co., printers, 1889. https://www.loc.gov/item/rc01000153/. ","“Young South Dakota Indian Artist is Making Name as Painter of Murals.” Rapid City Journal. September 30, 1939. "],"factoids":[],"files":{"https://www.intermountainhistories.org/files/fullsize/b132395541509c3a7b7c56f12a0d2633.jpg":{"id":3112,"mime-type":"image/jpeg","title":"Post Office Mural","description":"
This section of The Round-Up displays a group of people roping and branding cattle. The Snake River Plain’s vast lands provided a plentiful area for cattle grazing.
| DVM, Jimmy Emerson. Blackfoot Idaho Post Office Mural. July 8, 2016. Via Flickr. https://www.flickr.com/photos/auvet/28441310685/in/photolist-2iYWWGx-6KAzTT-6KAzT2-6KAzTa-6KAzTZ-6KAzTM-6KAzTr-2idZtsc-KhoKYJ-KaZBuh-KaZBdA-KhoHpq-KhoJfy-Kkg9MB-2ie2LMb-KhoNx1-cFqUGC-cFqWZQ-cFqVQL-cFqSes-frPj16","thumbnail":"https://www.intermountainhistories.org/files/square_thumbnails/b132395541509c3a7b7c56f12a0d2633.jpg"},"https://www.intermountainhistories.org/files/fullsize/adc66feda045469a14a550c6ed1831b1.jpg":{"id":3113,"mime-type":"image/jpeg","title":"Blackfoot Mural","description":"One section of The Arrival Celebration and The Round-Up displays the convivial, Regionalist history of the Shoshone-Bannock peoples in the Snake River Plain. In his murals, Andrew Standing Soldier depicted the everyday life of the tribes, including the tipi dwelling and covered wagons.
| DVM, Jimmy Emerson. Blackfoot Idaho Mural. July 15, 2009. Via Flickr. https://www.flickr.com/photos/auvet/3775141003/in/photolist-2iYWWGx-6KAzTT-6KAzT2-6KAzTZ-6KAzTM-6KAzTr-2idZtsc-2ie3Qqs-6KEQbq-KhoKYJ-KaZBuh-KaZBdA-KhoHpq-Kkg9MB-2ie2LMb-KhoNx1-cFqTow-cFqUGC-cFqWZQ-cFqVQL-cFqSes-frPj16","thumbnail":"https://www.intermountainhistories.org/files/square_thumbnails/adc66feda045469a14a550c6ed1831b1.jpg"},"https://www.intermountainhistories.org/files/fullsize/eb118638a0ab1a702495f928f7eb3a60.jpg":{"id":3114,"mime-type":"image/jpeg","title":"The Murals in Life","description":"This 1986 photo of the Blackfoot Main Post Office shows Andrew Standing Soldier's murals in context. To prepare the mural, Standing Soldier took two months to glue the canvas to the wall and ensure that there were no wrinkles that could disrupt his process before he began painting every wall excluding the front. | Kolva, Jim. USPS-Idaho Blackfoot MPO Photo No. 4. August 1986. National Register of Historic Places. https://npgallery.nps.gov/NRHP/AssetDetail/ca3fa04f-2451-4cdd-ab1a-5f2a8ee29c82","thumbnail":"https://www.intermountainhistories.org/files/square_thumbnails/eb118638a0ab1a702495f928f7eb3a60.jpg"},"https://www.intermountainhistories.org/files/fullsize/c4accab194ab95ca2a47b550db59469b.jpg":{"id":3115,"mime-type":"image/jpeg","title":"The Blackfoot Idaho Post Office","description":"This 1986 photo of the Blackfoot Main Post Office highlights its distinctive Art Deco style, exemplified in the building by features like the foliage motif that decorates the exterior columns. Gilbert Stanley Underwood was the architect for the 1936 building that continues to operate as a post office today.
| Kolva, Jim. USPS-Idaho Blackfoot MPO Photo No. 2. August 1986. National Register of Historic Places. https://npgallery.nps.gov/NRHP/AssetDetail/ca3fa04f-2451-4cdd-ab1a-5f2a8ee29c82","thumbnail":"https://www.intermountainhistories.org/files/square_thumbnails/c4accab194ab95ca2a47b550db59469b.jpg"}}}