This scene of a scalping has proved a controversial inclusion in Seth Eastman’s 1867 commission for the House Committee on Indian Affairs. Differing from the other more domestically oriented images, this painting has been removed and replaced in the committee’s hearing room several times since the 1980s. The artist used this composition on several occasions for prints in publications, including Henry Rowe Schoolcraft’s six-volume study Historical and Statistical Information Respecting the History, Conditions and Prospects of the Indian Tribes of the United States (1852).
