Sounding Wind 1849 - 1855

Seth Eastman, an artist and military officer, created this watercolor called "Sounding Wind, The Chippewa Brave" sometime in the mid-19th century. Eastman's position in the U.S. Army gives us a lens to view the work through, particularly regarding the representation of Native American life and culture. The image depicts a Chippewa, or Ojibwe, man in a moment of conflict, perhaps preparing for battle. It seems to romanticize the Native American, placing him within a noble, if stereotyped, narrative. This approach was common in the 19th century, often used to justify government policies of displacement and assimilation. How much did Eastman participate in that political project, consciously or not? To understand this artwork fully, we would look at Eastman's biography, the history of U.S. government relations with Native American tribes, and the visual conventions of the time, especially in ethnographic illustration. Only then can we understand this image as a product of its specific social and political context.