Benjamin Buffalo (1948-1994) was born in Oklahoma. He enrolled at the Bureau of Indian Affairs’ Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico in 1963. In 1967, he entered the U.S. Army, served a tour of duty with the 101st Airborne in Vietnam, and survived the battle at Hamburger Hill. Buffalo’s friends say he suffered from those experiences and unfortunately attempted to self-medicate with alcohol, which contriibuted to his untimely death. Buffalo’s works have been exhibited all over the United States, and also in Latin America. In 1973, he won a prestigious first place painting award in the 29th Annual American Indian Artists Exhibition at the Philbrook Art Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma. In many of his paintings, Buffalo used a great deal of red and blue, which reflects the influence of the Native American Church. In describing his work, Buffalo said: “I wanted to get away from the traditional, two-dimensional type of work. I’m trying to express the realism of our American Indians by photographic exactness.”