According to one of Russell’s acquaintances, the people represented in his Indian Family set of bookends are members of the Gros Ventre tribe. By 1883, when Russell was beginning his career on the Montana ranges, the Gros Ventres could no longer subsist on hunting and were wholly dependent on federal government assistance. Within a few years most of their camps were more or less permanently established near the Fort Belknap reservation on the Milk River, east of the Bears Paw Mountains. Russell’s sculptures portray the Gros Ventre family without reference to the reservation life that was destroying their culture. The man, resting contentedly on a buffalo robe beneath him, wears little clothing except for a breechclout and moccasins; he carries a bowcase and quiver across his back. The latter objects, apparently the simple type that many Plains Indians used for daily hunting, seem to be stitched together. As a rear view of Russell’s bronze shows, the quiver was often joined with a wrapping stitch over sticks to keep both cases from collapsing. The case and quiver were generally made of animal hide, especially otter, although tougher skins such as elk were also employed. In a letter dated March 22, 1916, Nancy Russell confirmed an order of “Indian Family Bookends” in lots of six or more at a casting price of $3 per pair. The Benjamin Zoppo Foundry casts are among the most sought-after of Russell’s bronzes, because the foundry ceased operations after 1921. To collectors, Zoppo casts are unquestionably lifetime casts, and thus more desirable. After the closing of the Zoppo foundry, the plaster models for the “Indian Family Bookends” went into storage until 1925, when they were transferred under Nancy Russell’s direction to the Roman Bronze Works foundry for further casting.