Indian Warrior

Alexander Phimister Proctor

modeled 1898; cast 1900-1909

Bronze, sand cast, probably by John Williams or Jno. Williams, Inc., Foundry, New York

Seattle Art Museum

A bronze sculpture depicts a Native American man in traditional headdress riding a horse, holding a spear. The horse is captured in mid-stride, with its head turned and mouth open. In the fall of 1895, Phimister Proctor traveled to Glacier National Park and stayed at the Blackfeet reservation, where he sculpted a small model that later served as the inspiration for Indian Warrior. The next year, he received the prestigious Rinehart Scholarship to practice in Paris on a three-year contract. The scholarship committee commissioned Indian Warrior for the Rinehart Prix de Paris Collection. While studying in France, Proctor became skilled in the classicism of the Beaux-Arts style even as he maintained his tendency toward American naturalism. Indian Warrior is a careful likeness of Weasel Head, the Blackfeet man who