James Earle Fraser Character Analysis

James Earle Fraser was the American artist who created The End of the Trail, a 1915 sculpture that King describes as “the twentieth century’s most famous Indian image.” Fraser’s sculpture was itself inspired by centuries of depictions of Native people in art, literature, and, more recently, the Wild West performances of the 19th century. The sculpture depicts a “dejected Indian” atop an equally dejected horse. King interprets the sculpture as symbolizing “that both rider and horse have run out of time and space and are poised on the edge of oblivion.” The sculpture is a visual representation of the destruction and cultural erasure Native Americans faced over centuries of colonization and forced assimilation. According to King, variations on the bleak image portrayed in Fraser’s sculpture may be seen all across the U.S. today, on the sides of motels and on billboards, for example. King sees this recurrent imagery as another example of America’s tendency to see “Dead Indians” but ignore “Live Indians.”