The painting “Prairie Fire” launched Kansas artist Blackbear Bosin to national prominence. (Mid-America All-Indian Museum)
It is one of the most recognizable pieces of art in Kansas.
“The Keeper of the Plains” is Blackbear Bosin’s 44-foot steel sculpture of a Native American, hands lifted to the heavens. It is installed on a rocky plinth above the confluence of the Arkansas and Little Arkansas rivers near downtown Wichita and, since its creation in 1974, has become synonymous with the city — its aspirations and hopes and the First Peoples who came before…