Robert Freeman (Luiseno/Santee) b. 1939

One of the first native American cartoonists.

From the Akta Lakota Museum and Cultural Center web site:

Freeman was born on the Rincon Reservation of the Luiseno Indians in San Diego County, California.

His father is Luiseno and English. His mother is half English/French and half Sioux. She is a descendant of Bone Necklace, sub-chief of the Santee.

Freman's childhood summers were spent with his grandmother and cousins on the Crow Creek Reservation where he is an enrolled member of the tribe.

He never attended art school, but his creative talent is vastly diversified. His work encompasses realism, abstractionism, cubism, impressionism, portraiture, cartoons and murals.

Freeman works with pencil or pen, acrylic, mixed media, oils and creates wood and bronze sculptures which he casts himself. Embossed paper, zinc and copper etchings, stone lithographs and woodcuts are among his prolific works.

He exhibits his work and the work of other artists at the Robert Freeman Gallery in Palomar, California. He is currently writing a comedy screenplay titled The Indians Are Coming, preparatory to production of a feature film.

www.aktalakota.org/index.cfm?cat=54&artid=203