Eastman depicts a temporally and geographically disconnected pastiche of an Indian council in this work, part of his 1867 commission for the House Committee on Indian Affairs. Set in a Dakota village in the 1840s, the scene includes both a summer cottage—the gable-roofed wood structure—and a conical winter tipi. A Dakota chief in a war bonnet stands on the right. A portrait of Red Jacket, a famous Iroquois chief best known for his negotiations in the 1794 treaty between the Iroquois Nations and the U.S. government, is placed in the center of the group. This combination suggests a desire to showcase as much information as possible in one composition, rather than describe an actual event.
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