In the early 1920s a group of Charles M. Russell’s closest friends in Great Falls, Montana, were partners in the Montana Newspaper Association, a venture that published advertising supplements in the state’s daily newspapers. They hit upon the idea to publish a series of entertaining stories chronicling the history of the Old West, and they prevailed on Russell to provide pen-and-ink illustrations for each one. These stories appeared nearly every Sunday for a year, from March 5, 1922, through February 18, 1923. Most of Montana’s 170 newspapers carried this popular series. For his part, Russell was glad to participate; he loved the history of the American West and avidly read many books on the subject. Today these wonderfully narrative drawings stand apart from the articles they once accompanied. The original ink drawing pictured here was originally in the estate of the artist’s widow, Nancy C. Russell. It is part of the largest selection of them to be found anywhere—almost half the number that the artist eventually produced for the series. In each of them, Russell’s fluid and dexterous lines create a vivid picture of truly historic events—elevating them to the power of epic and myth. Juan de Oñate (ca. 1549–1630), a native of Mexico, was given a commission in 1595 to colonize the upper Rio Grande Valley and introduce Franciscan missionaries to convert the Pueblo Indians. Three years later, he rode into New Mexico with approximately 230 men, another 250 settlers, and 7,000 head of livestock. Russell’s drawing shows Oñate conferring with a Pima Indian, and the expedition in the background. Oñate and his party established the first Spanish settlement in the Southwest, San Gabriel, near the Indian pueblo of San Juan on the Rio Grande. Oñate’s brutal supression of a pueblo revolt at Acoma got him in trouble with the Spanish authorities, and he was eventually recalled as governor of the colony in 1607.