And what to do next.
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Author: Marty Two Bulls
Marty Two Bulls Sr. is a member of the Oglala Lakota, from the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. He spent his childhood in Rapid City, S.D. It was at his high school newspaper (the Central High’s Pine Needle) that Two Bulls first started drawing editorial cartoons. His ‘editoons’ which started out as a hobby but within a few years the hobby turned into a passion and eventually a career.Marty studied art and graphic design in Denver at the Colorado Institute of Art. His career began at the local television station, a NBC affiliate, as assistant to the art director. After a few years in commercial printing, Two Bulls worked weekly newspapers and then moved on to dailies. He would become the graphics editor at the Rapid City Journal and later the states largest newspaper The Sioux Falls Argus Leader. He eventually left newspapers and returned to college to finish his BFA degree at the Institute of American Indian Art in Santa Fe, N.M., and to freelance as a cartoonist, while pursuing a fine art career. Two Bulls has drawn and self-syndicated editorial cartoons since 2001. His work also appears in six native owned newspapers and Andrews McMeel Universal’s GoComics. His work focuses on issues of political interest to Native American peoples. Native Americans have been historically persecuted and marginalized by the dominant culture, which has reduced them to a minority in their own lands. At first Two Bulls started writing his cartoons for his Native people through local newspapers but a growing readership of non-Natives were cultivated through social media. He embraced this growing audience and continues to express his work for the enjoyment of all peoples, in the hopes that a Lakota’s point of view will bring a better understanding and support for issues that affect Native American Indians.Marty currently works as a senior freelance artist and graphic designer.