“Once the Ree had a fight with the sioux and on the other sides Bears and/ Buffalos had a fight-and so I just draw like it,/ Ka-what” (Artist’s inscription, verso)

Depicted is a battle between the Sioux and the Arikara. Each tribal group is linked to a specific animal: the Sioux to the bear and the Arikara to the buffalo. These two animals, the most feared and respected on the plains, were natural enemies. Therefore, they became logical choices when an artist wanted to represent the enmity between the two tribal groups. The mounted Arikara warriors charge the Sioux, whose camp is represented at the left by a series of tipis. One Arikara warrior carries a crooked, otterskin-wrapped society staff, and wears an otterskin turban with trailer. An unusual feature of this drawing is the placement of the action in the middle ground between landscape elements in the foreground and the background.” (p.36)

William S. Wierzbowski and Helen M. Mangelsdorf in Images of a Vanished Life: Plains Indian Drawing from the Collection of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, 1985.