In Russell’s day, historians and anthropologists viewed intertribal warfare among Plains Indians as something of an individual enterprise, characterized by a self-centered desire for prestige, revenge, or simply the spoils of conflict. Although this was not entirely true, the stereotype of the lone warrior persists as part of the western myth, as in this view of a Cree thrusting his lance into the side of his Blackfoot adversary. According to historian Brian W. Dippie, Russell’s watercolor closely follows the composition of an illustration by Frederic Remington of a similar subject, which appeared in Harper’s Weekly in December 1889. Early in his career as an artist, Russell is known to have used Remington’s work as a guide to the development of his compositions.