this is a Bear he want too kill the man and his wife that is all/ Pamani Nov. 15” 1879” (Artist’s inscription, verso)

“A bear hunt is the subject of this drawing. Bear hunting was a dangerous undertaking primarily because a wounded bear would become very angry. Here the hunter and his wife are fleeing from a wounded bear. The couple’s dog attempts to hold the animal at bay while they flee. The man carries his quiver, but his bow and arrow lay on the ground where he has dropped them. The dotted lines that show the place where the man and woman had been standing and the path they have fled are a convention of Plains Indian painting.” (p.39)

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.