In the foreground of this snowy landscape, Seth Eastman depicts an important method for obtaining food in the harsh, long winters of the Northern Plains. In tents erected over holes cut in the frozen lake, fish-shaped lures would be dangled in the water, and approaching fish would be speared. The hooded man on the left removes one such impaled fish. This work is one of nine scenes commissioned by the House Committee on Indian Affairs, depicting traditional Native American domestic practices, as interpreted by the artist.
