We-har-ka

U.S. Army Captain Seth Eastman was a trained artist who served twice on the frontier at Minnesota’s Fort Snelling, from 1830 to 1832 and again from 1841 to 1848. His extensive firsthand, peaceful encounters with Native Americans gave him extraordinary opportunities to observe their customs and practices, which he documented in his art.

Most of the 35 works on paper by Eastman in Mia's collection relate to an assignment to illustrate a massive survey of Native culture by Henry Rowe Schoolcraft, but several watercolors illustrate the writings of Eastman’s second wife, Mary Henderson Eastman. Often these were interpretations of Native stories she collected during her seven-year stay at Fort Snelling. “We-har-ka” was reproduced in an 1852 publication called “The Iris, ” along with a story by Mary. It is one of three she published that involve the Native heroine taking her own life.