CAIRNS is developing a new exhibit, entitled In and Out of Place, in collaboration with Lukas Rieppel, a historian at Brown University. We will provide regular updates to keep you in the loop as the exhibit takes shape and then opens in June of 2027. 

Today, we are introducing one of the exhibit’s core elements, which we are calling "skullworks". These will be artworks by contemporary Lakotan artists, featuring prehistoric animals that lived in Lakotan treaty lands many millions of years ago. But instead of using traditional mediums, these artists will use three dimensional replicas of fossilized skulls as “canvases” upon which to create their works.

Lakotan treaty lands are especially rich in prehistoric fossils. As a result, they have played an outsized role in the sciences of geology and paleontology. Many different animals lived in the treaty lands, but one group especially caught our attention. They are called Brontotheres, and they lived about thirty million years ago. There were many different types, and some of them grew to the size of an elephant. Brontothere fossils are easily identified by their W-shaped molar teeth, as well as the strange-looking protuberances, similar to horns, that grew out of their heads.

When we started working on the design for In and Out of Place, we immediately knew that Brontotheres would be critical to the exhibit. So, we organized multiple field trips to locate a good skull, which took us from the CAIRNS office in the Lacreek District of Pine Ridge Reservation to Rapid City, South Dakota, Chadron, Nebraska, the Field Museum in Chicago and the Yale Peabody Museum in New Haven, Connecticut. The search turned out to be surprisingly difficult and, at times, frustrating, but we believe we may have finally succeeded!

We are still in the process of acquiring the skull pictured above, so it is too early to share details just yet. But with a little luck (and money!), it will serve as a canvas for a skullwork by a Lakotan artist which will be the foundation for an important part of the In and Out of Place exhibit.

The photo above is of a replica of a Brontothere skull.