“There some more sioux had been trying to steel some horses, they found/ them and they ran after them, and one of them got throne by a horse/ and one of the Rees got there first scalp him while he was alive you see/ the men holds his knife in his hand and the scalp and the other one/ got there next hit him with that svord, and his trying to run away/ but he haint got an hair and have that sword in his hand he can not run away/ his brother stroped and trying to shoot the Rees./ Ahuka” (Artist’s inscription, verso)

“The killing and scalping of a Sioux warrior by two Arikara warriors is the subject of this drawing. A wounded Sioux is dealt the death blow by one Arikara with a feathered lance and another has just scalped him. Most tribes had scalp dances in which these trophies were displayed by the returning victorious warriors. Another mode of Arikara hairdressing is shown. The Arikara warrior with the lance has some of his hair gathered into a topknot at the forehead and tied with cloth.” (p.22)

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.