Russell’s “paper talk,” or illustrated letters, gave free rein to his verbal and visual talent. Although putting words on paper came hard to him, he possessed a natural gift as a storyteller, along with the ability to summarize the key elements of a story or description in a well-chosen illustration. Surviving rough drafts of a few Russell letters—as well as preliminary sketches for the illustrations—indicate that he planned some of them in advance. In 1912 and 1913, following exhibitions held at the Folsom Galleries in New York, the Russells vacationed in Stuart, Florida, where Charles’ father and stepmother had retired. They took in the sights, and the artist commented in typical fashion on the local Indians he found there. His letter to Sid Willis, the proprietor of the Mint Saloon back home in Great Falls, makes it clear that he regarded the Seminole Indians as the rightful owners of a land that had been taken from them by force. The Seminole man in Russell’s illustration in the letter wears the characteristic turban and long shirt of an Everglades warrior of the third quarter of the nineteenth century.