Nancy Russell described the figure in this bronze as a Piegan (Blackfoot) scout, seated on a high point of land and looking for game—or perhaps an enemy. “You can tell the wind is blowing softly,” she wrote. “He has a sawed-off flintlock gun, or fewk. In his belt is his medicine bag. The buffalo robe that he wore has slipped from his body and he is seated on it. From his wrist hangs an elk horn quirt. He is wearing a wolf skin cap.” When moving into enemy territory, scouts frequently went out to survey the surrounding country from high ground and make sure the party could proceed safely. The warriors traveled lightly, carrying only a small amount of food, their weapons, robes or blankets, and above all their “medicine,” or talismans to ensure good fortune. Russell’s figure here closely resembles one of the greatest Blackfoot raiders in the period, White Quiver, a Piegan warrior of rare sagacity and daring. Russell first created a painted plaster model of Watcher of the Plains in 1901, more than twenty-five years before it was cast in bronze, and produced several other versions of the painted model for family and friends. The decision to cast the plaster version in bronze came as Russell’s productive life neared its end. The earliest cast seems to have been completed and sold in October 1926, the very month of Russell’s death. A principal difference between the plaster and bronze versions of the work is the addition of a curiously inept feather protruding from the wolfskin hat of the bronze figure; it is doubtful that Russell himself ever included this in the work. At least five copies of this bronze were listed in Mrs. Russell’s estate at the time of her death; this example is one of those. It is estimated that a total of thirteen or fourteen of these bronzes were cast. The original retail price was $350.