Braves and Buffalo : Plains Indian Life in 1837

Hardcover with dust jacket, 176 pages, oblong, 9.25x12.25 - 23.5x31 cm, Colour plates.

Jacket rubbed at corners with flaps sunned. Jacket front bumped with small closed tear to flap, jacket back bears two closed tears at spine edge. Jacket spine bumped at head and heel. Ffep. and half title stamped by previous owner. Gutters cracking in several places.

Alfred J. Miller was a young American painter who studied in Europe before accepting an commission to accompany William Drummond Stewart and an American Fur Company caravan to an annual gathering of fur traders and merchants in the Oregon territory. As requested, Miller produced a visual account of the trip through paintings. While some of the volume’s 41 colour plates show the caravan’s participants or progress, most images depict Indigenous figures. Miller paints hunting parties, trading sessions, and moments of everyday life – as well as portraits – lived by Indigenous groups that he encountered. Brief explanations or comments by Miller accompany each painting. Together, the paintings form an 1830s record of Indigenous life in the American west, as well as one of the final Rocky Mountain rendezvous. Includes introductory essay by Michael Bell.

0802020933