“Stunning artistic recreation of Zintkála Nuni’s story."
— Booklife Review, Editor's Pick
Zintka! Available in Hardcover or Paperback. 48-pages, Includes 24-pages of illustration, timeline with historic photos of Zintkála Nuni, essays on Zintka’s life, the meaning of her name and the significance of Native American ledger art. Also included is a lead sheet for the song “Little Bird” which the book and short film are based on, plus a QR Code linking to the 6-minute short film.
“I love the book… it tells such an important story with empathy and precision.”
— Mary Pipher, Ph.D., New York Times bestselling author
“Your use of photographs, ledger art and treatment of illustrations is very sophisticated and dynamic.”
— Arthur Amiotte, Oglala Lakota artist, Art Historian
“I don't know how to sufficiently thank you and your partner for your extraordinary work on the life of Lost Bird. Long overdue, brilliantly done, and happily receiving the recognition it deserves...it will be a go-to place for so many people.”
— Jonathan Holstein, Expert on Native American Art and American folk art
“I don't think I have words to accurately describe how touching and important this book and the accompanying short video and song are.”
— Carolyn Cracraft – Librarian
“Zintka mashes together Brad Colerick’s haunting, thought-stimulating song with Scott Feldmann’s dancing, juxtaposed visual imagery into a compelling portrayal.”
— Steve Fjeldsted, Former Director, South Pasadena Public Library
“You have an amazing way of presenting history, and that needs to be shared broadly!”
— Chris Hochstetler, Executive Director - Stuhr Museum of the Prairie Pioneer
“Zintka! Lost Bird of Wounded Knee — Zintkála Nuni”
The short film has been celebrated at film festivals and the book adaptation has received high praise from publishing insiders, authors and historians. “Zintka! Lost Bird of Wounded Knee — Zintkála Nuni” (Deep Magic, 2024) is a 48-page book that features Native American ledger art and historic photographs accompanied by a timeline and biographical essay on the Lakota baby who survived the Wounded Knee Massacre of 1890. A true story of found and lost... and found again, Zintka! tells the troubled tale of a Native American girl caught between two worlds, accepted by neither during her lifetime.
The short film “Lost Bird” (Zintkála Nuni) premiered in November 2023 in front of Riley Keough and Gina Gammell’s celebrated feature film “War Pony” at The Ross Theatre, on campus at the University of Nebraska. It was showcased at the Sedona International Film Festival in February of 2024 and awarded “Best Mixed Media Short.” The film later screened at other indie film festivals including Omaha, Nebraska, Ridgway, Colorado and Pasadena, California. In Grand Mesa, Colorado it won the Audience Choice Award and two others. The animated film is set to the original song from singer-songwriter Brad Colerick, “Little Bird — Lost Bird of Wounded Knee.”
The success of the short film led to its publication as a 48-page illustrated book. Librarians, historians and reviewers loved it, with high marks for its unique storytelling style. BookLife Reviews states: “This stunning YA debut transcends the confines of a single book, as the authors . . . employ song, ledger art, winter counts, and film with exquisite, emotionally charged images, ensuring that Zintka’s story will never be forgotten.”
As a Lakota (Sioux) baby and her mother were fleeing for safety, they became victims in the Wounded Knee Massacre of 1890. The infant was kept alive by the warmth of her mother as she lay dying, then taken away and adopted by a prominent soldier and his famous suffragette wife to be raised in their white, high-society circles. Named “Lost Bird” at the moment she was separated from her Lakota caregivers, Zintkála Nuni’s life was chronicled in newspapers from the time of her discovery to the day of her death. She joined Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show, San Francisco’s vaudeville circuit, and became an extra in Hollywood silent movies.
Zintka died in 1920 and was buried in a pauper’s grave in Hanford, California. Seventy-five years later, her story was revealed by Renée Sansom Flood in the historical biography Lost Bird: Spirit of the Lakota (Scribner, 1995). Lakota leadership from the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota ceremoniously reburied her on July 11, 1991, at the Wounded Knee Monument, near the mass grave of the disaster, which included her birth mother.
The book Zintka! includes 24 illustrated pages created from the film. It goes further than the six-minute animated video by including a historical biography, a timeline for Zintka’s life, and an essay on how “lost bird” came to mean a Native American child adopted away from their Reservation, sometimes without awareness of their parentage. It also includes samples of Plains Indian ledger art and a lead sheet for musicians to learn the song. The book Zintka! is available at retailers nationwide including indie bookstores, museum stores, and at colleges offering degrees in U.S. history and Indigenous cultures. It can be ordered direct from the publishers at deepmagic.fun/books.
Singer-songwriter Brad Colerick and animator and artist Scott Feldmann are partners in the Deep Magic Song & Drawing Co., based in South Pasadena CA. The two have collaborated on several short music videos. Zintka! is their first foray into publishing.