![]() Design and construction Plaster sculpture of End of the Trail exhibited at the Panama–Pacific International Expositionįraser created the first model of End of the Trail in 1894 at the age of 17. Another work by Fraser devoted to Native Americans is called The Buffalo Prayer. Asked to create something uniquely American, Fraser thought the buffalo and American Indian were integral parts of American culture and history. His design for the Buffalo-Indian Head nickel appeared on the five cent coin from 1913 to 1938. His memoirs state, "as a boy, I remembered an old Dakota trapper saying, 'The Indians will someday be pushed into the Pacific Ocean.'" Later he stated "the idea occurred to me of making an Indian which represented his race reaching the end of the trail, at the edge of the Pacific." įraser made several other works related to Native Americans. Background įraser took inspiration for End of the Trail from his experiences as a boy in the Dakota Territory. ![]() However, Fraser intended for the work to be a critique of the United States government. The work has been criticized for the manner in which is depicts Native Americans as a dying race. The 1915 version of the statue is now in the National Cowboy Hall of Fame and Western Heritage Museum. The sculpture gained national popularity after being presented at the 1915 Panama–Pacific International Exposition. įraser felt a connection to Native American culture, which influenced the creation of the End of the Trail. The main figure embodies the suffering and exhaustion of people driven from their native lands. The statue is a commentary on the damage Euro-American settlement inflicted upon Native Americans. The man in the statue is based on Seneca Chief John Big Tree, and the horse was adapted from one in another work, In the Wind. The wind blowing the horse's tail suggests they have their backs to the wind. He is hanging limp as his weary horse with swollen eyes comes to the edge of the Pacific Ocean. The sculpture depicts a weary Native American man, wearing only the remains of a blanket and carrying a spear. ![]() Fraser created the original version of the work in 1894, and he subsequently produced numerous replicas in both plaster and bronze. The End of the Trail is a sculpture by James Earle Fraser. Small replica sculptures were soon available, and the silhouetted image decorated bookends, ashtrays, postcards, and even silverware.Statue by James Earle Fraser in Waupun, United States At the Exposition, this work won the gold medal for sculpture, and its popularity assured the image’s permanence in the minds of American viewers. When the sculpture was displayed at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco in 1915-at two and one-half times life size-a guidebook explained, “The Indian has ridden for many a weary day…but alas!…His trail is now lost and on the edge of the continent he finds himself almost annihilated” (James, Sculpture of the Exposition Palaces and Courts, San Francisco, 1915, page 34). Influenced by Saint-Gaudens’s aim to create sculpture perceived as distinctly American, Fraser synthesized his French-trained aesthetic with American western subject matter. Following training in Minneapolis and Chicago, he worked in Paris as an assistant to American sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens. The downward momentum pushes the horse and rider toward a small, rocky precipice in defeat and despair.įraser had grown up in the West at the end of the frontier days, hearing stories of the plight of the Indian. His moccasined feet dangle loosely, and his spear points diagonally toward the ground. A forlorn warrior sits slumped on his pony. James Earle Fraser’s sculpture End of the Trail succinctly and pointedly summarized American perception of Native Americans in the early twentieth century. Originally featured in Points West magazine in Spring 2013 End of the Trail by James Earle Fraser
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