In his paintings completed for the House Committee on Indian Affairs, Seth Eastman includes specific details of traditional domestic tasks. These women are shown gathering wild rice, an important staple in the diets of the Northern Plains Indians. Stalks are harvested from the water, and then beaten with paddle-like implements. Though most of the paintings in this commission depict Dakotas, the birch bark canoes detailed in this painting indicate that Eastman is specifically illustrating Chippewas.
