The bronze figure of an Indian with a raised tomahawk on a rearing horse presents a special problem with regard to Russell’s sculptural oeuvre. Although Nancy Russell listed this work among her husband’s legitimate subjects in bronze, its casting history is far from simple. In truth, The Cryer did not exist in bronze prior to 1929. On February 26 of that year, Mrs. Russell revealed the following to a collector: “Now, about ’The Cryer.’ That is our Indian on the rearing horse that has been restored to such a degree that I don’t believe anyone would know that Charlie hadn’t put it back together. Joe De Yong used the best of his ability and so did Charlie Beil, who I’ve just told you of. Between them, I feel the model is really nearly perfect and Charlie would chuckle over the way they put back together the bits of his composition and have it now in a perfect whole.” Thus the original model, which the artist apparently completed some time before his death, must have been extensively damaged before it could be cast into bronze. Mrs. Russell herself came up with the title of the bronze before the model was delivered to the California Art Bronze Foundry in Los Angeles at the end of March 1929. The first cast seems to have been completed the following July, and it quickly entered the collection of George D. Sack, the most important collector of Russell’s bronzes. Although at least one copy of the bronze was consigned to a Los Angeles gallery, few if any copies seem to have been sold prior to Mrs. Russell’s death in May 1940. The copy of the bronze shown here was the only copy remaining in her estate.