Exhibition Guide
Indians Hunting Elk on the Platte
Audio
A View of the Wild West
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Audio
A Conversation about the Horses
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Additional Images
Art Object Info
In this painting, two Indigenous men ride horseback and pursue an elk during a hunt. Alfred Jacob Miller painted this scene from an observational sketch after attending an 1837 gathering of multiple tribes living in the Great Plains region near Horse Creek in present-day Wyoming.
Miller’s journal entries from this experience speak to the riders’ extensive knowledge of the terrain and behavior of the elk. Riding at full gallop, the hunters drove the animal into the treacherous Platte River, which had grown up to three-quarters of a mile wide due to recent rains. Miller learned from these Indigenous hunters, “Even in the water [the elk] is a dangerous customer, for he has a trick of using his long horns to great advantage, and keeping his enemies at bay.”
Indians Hunting Elk on the Platte
In this painting, two Indigenous men ride horseback and pursue an elk during a hunt. Alfred Jacob Miller painted this scene from an observational sketch after attending an 1837 gathering of multiple tribes living in the Great Plains region near Horse Creek in present-day Wyoming.
Miller’s journal entries from this experience speak to the riders’ extensive knowledge of the terrain and behavior of the elk. Riding at full gallop, the hunters drove the animal into the treacherous Platte River, which had grown up to three-quarters of a mile wide due to recent rains. Miller learned from these Indigenous hunters, “Even in the water [the elk] is a dangerous customer, for he has a trick of using his long horns to great advantage, and keeping his enemies at bay.”