Page 96 - 2019 Russell Catalogue
P. 96
129
JIM CARSON
Custer in the Black Hills oil
38 x 70 inches
$25,000–35,000
The Black Hills expedition was a U.S. army expedition in 1874 led by Lieutenant Colonel George Custer, which set out from Fort Abraham Lincoln in Dakota Territory with orders to travel to the previously uncharted Black Hills, in violation of an existing treaty with the Sioux Nation. The mission was to look for suitable locations for a fort and investigate the feasibility of white settlement and the possibility of gold mining. Custer embarked with 1,000 men, one Negro woman, Custer’s cook Sally, depicted in this painting, and 110 wagons. The expedition and the discovery of gold shortly thereafter resulted in a flood of white settlers into the territory. To this day, the Sioux Nation is still trying to reclaim their sacred Black Hills.
—Jim Carson, November 2018
