Cannupa Hanska Luger Attrition

For Cannupa Hanska Luger (b. 1979, Standing Rock Reservation, ND), the bison is a symbol of Indigenous resilience and sovereignty. The mass slaughter of North American bison from 1845 to 1895 by settlers of European descent took place for profit, dominion over land, and westward expansion. The strategic removal of this vital source of food, clothing, shelter, and spiritual reverence for the Great Plains Native American populations forced their assimilation into western culture. It was also an ecological disaster with long-lasting effects.

Luger, an enrolled member of the Three Affiliated Tribes of Fort Berthold from the Mandan, Hidatsa, Arikara, and Lakota cultures, is a descendant of buffalo people. Attrition is a 10-foot long, larger-than-life skeletal sculpture made from steel with an ash black patina. The arresting form emerges from the soil beneath, visible through grasses indigenous to this region. The work highlights the profound interdependence between animals, humans, and the land. It draws attention to the loss, trauma, and violence that can result from a single disruption in an ecosystem. Placed on the pathway to City Hall, Attrition symbolically engages with New York City’s heart of policy-making, bringing to light the history of the bison’s survival.

Cannupa Hanska Luger: Attrition is curated by Public Art Fund Adjunct Curator Katerina Stathopoulou.

“I live because my ancestors survived a war of attrition carried out by extractive colonizers in order to subjugate tribal nations of the Great Plains for American progress. By the year 1895, across North America, bison herds had been systematically eradicated from numbers in the tens of millions to a mere 1,500—this was genocide. The public artwork Attrition is an effort to transform industrial processes and materials into a symbol of these buried histories reemerging in the 21st century.”

 —Cannupa Hanska Luger