Works of Art

In October 1887 a group of Crow Indians, frustrated by a series of horse-stealing raids by the neighboring Piegan Blackfeet, left the Cheyenne Agency on the Tongue River and went on the offensive against them. Returning victorious with about sixty captured horses, they were confronted by the government agent, who unwisely tried to arrest them. This only angered the mounted raiders, who began to fire indiscriminately at the agency buildings, refusing to leave. The embattled agent wired General Alfred H. Terry, the commanding officer of the Missouri division of the army, who immediately dispatched a troop of cavalry from Fort Keogh to arrest the offending Indians. On November 6 the officer in charge of the detatchment reported to his superiors that during the attempt to arrest the Indians “a smart skirmish” followed, resulting in the death of one of the Crow ringleaders, Sword-Bearer, and three others. Some of the Indians were captured, while others fled into the nearby hills.

Remington depicted the initial incident at the Cheyenne Agency in this black and white oil, which was reproduced in Harper’s Weekly on November 5, a day before the Indians’ final skirmish with the U.S. Cavalry. The accompanying article, probably by Remington or taken from his reports, noted that the Crow Indians “have long been faithful, brave, and efficient allies of our troops in warfare with the Sioux and other tribes.” It went on to mention the provocations from the Piegans that caused a younger chief, Sword-Bearer, to assemble a group of warriors to inflict punishment on their enemies. To the writer of the article, the Crows were victims of a lack of understanding on the part of the agent. “The affair was intended only as a defiance, and the shots were so directed that no one was harmed,” the account noted, adding that the now hostile Crows remained near the agency, “with much doubt existing as to the outcome of this grave situation.”