In October 1890 Remington was invited to travel with an official military commission, headed by General Nelson A. Miles, to ascertain the reservation status of the Cheyenne Indians in Montana. They traveled to Fort Keogh, where Remington had the opportunity to observe the activities of small detachments of Indian scouts, including one led by Lieutenant Samuel C. Robertson. Truly impressed by by the Indians in Robertson’s Crow Scout Corps who were based at Fort Custer, Remington pronounced them the “best possible” light cavalrymen, second to no one including the white troopers themselves. This watercolor depicts Robertson as a figure of regal authority astride a lean, heavily muscled horse. Like the scouts under his command, the lieutenant wears leather leggings in the place of high-topped cavalry boots.

This watercolor was reproduced in “Indians as Irregular Cavalry,” an article that Remington wrote for the December 27, 1890 issue of Harper’s Weekly. In the article, the artist took a somewhat enlightened attitude towards the plight of Indians on the reservations, arguing that they be allowed to serve in some branches of the military. He praised the units of Indian scouts and soldiers he had seen, adding that there was no way for them to earn a regular living on their reservations. “We are year after year oppressing a conquered people, until now it is assuming the magnitude of a crime,” he wrote. At the same time, he praised officers like Robertson as exemplary soldiers who understood the Indians and tried to work with them, asserting that “this is the sort of man who should take the place of the halfpenny politician who has been nurtured in the belief that to plunder the Indians is a natural reward for good service in his district.”