End of the Trail
About this property
The End of the Trail is a sculpture by James Earle Fraser. Fraser created the original version of the work in 1894, and he subsequently produced numerous replicas in both plaster and bronze. The sculpture depicts a weary Native American man, wearing only the remains of a blanket and carrying a spear. He is hanging limp as his weary horse with swollen eyes stops to observe the ground before them. The wind blowing the horse's tail suggests they have their backs to the wind. The man in the statue may be based on Seneca Chief John Big Tree, and the horse was adapted from one in another work, In the Wind. The statue is a commentary on the damage Euro-American settlement inflicted upon Native Americans. The main figure embodies the suffering and exhaustion of people driven from their native lands. Fraser felt a connection to Native American culture, which influenced the creation of the End of the Trail. The sculpture gained national popularity after being presented at the 1915 Panama–Pacific International Exposition. The 1915 version of the statue is now in the National Cowboy Hall of Fame and Western Heritage Museum. The work, which Fraser intended as a critique of the United States government, has been criticized for the manner in which it depicts Native Americans as a dying race. Fraser also stated that the work represented a "weaker race" being "pushed to the wall by a stronger (race}".
Location
Categories
Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).
Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
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Questions about this property
When was End of the Trail listed on the National Register?
End of the Trail was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on August 28, 1980.
What type of historic resource is End of the Trail?
End of the Trail is classified as a object in the National Register of Historic Places.
What is the period of significance for End of the Trail?
The period of significance for End of the Trail is recorded as the listed era.
Can I research the history near End of the Trail?
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