After Russell’s marriage in 1896, his wife realized he had to pursue his art in a more serious manner, actively seeking a market for his works. Over the next few years, she pushed him to paint a variety of subjects designed to appeal to the ever-growing audience for popular western themes. In 1898, with his father’s assistance, Russell placed four watercolors at New York’s venerable Macbeth Galleries. Priced at $50 or less, the works depicted subjects such as Indian war parties, bronco-busting cowboys, and encounters with wagon trains similar to the subject of this watercolor. For the next few years, Russell concentrated on painting a variety of scenes reminiscent of the popular entertainment at Wild West shows—subjects subjects guaranteed to win the favor of an eastern audience and further his career. In this watercolor, a group of mounted Blackfeet are shown trying to approach a wagon train that is proceeding across the bottomlands in the distance. Peaks that resemble the Highwood Mountains of north central Montana loom across the far horizon. At this stage of his career, Russell collected many Indian artifacts, and most of these worked their way into his paintings. The beadwork on the leggings on the central figure, for example, reflects the style of the 1890s, when the Blackfeet and other tribes were confined to reservations. The feather bonnet headdress, truly a ubiquitous symbol of Indian identity to modern eyes, was actually more of a feature for the Indians of the central plains; it was used principally by the Lakota and Cheyenne, but only for special occasions. Today the headdress is a recognizable feature of many Indian tribes; even women and children now wear them.