"The Massacre of United States Troops by the Sioux and Cheyenne Indians, Near

Fort Philip Kearney, Dakotah Territory, December 22nd 1866."

When viewing this particular piece you can see the blatant emphasis upon the apparent savagery and malevolence of the Cheyenne and the Sioux. The artist's aim being that when the public view this image their opinion of these "savages" will shift immediately to hate. Thus meaning any doubts that society had about stealing Native American land will now be washed away due to the fact that apparently, like the image is trying to convey these people are uncultured and do not wish greet the morals bestowed upon them by the settles with violence. Therefore any wrong doing by American's in the past in now alleviated allowing a now positive perspective to be put upon their soldiers whose job is to protect the honest citizens from tribes like the two shown in the picture.

Pictures like this and their biased nature are prime examples of propaganda used in the nineteenth century when the Native American genocide was thriving in order to remind the people who they were dealing with despite the fact that the massacre was essentialy the other way round. Though due to America's desperation to thrive in prosperity they tended to feel the tribes dotted about the land were standing in the way of commerce and industry. The fact that they were there first did not enter into it and it was drawing like this that conveyed to them that if these people were violent and ungodly they had no right to be there.

Looking at the picture itself the Natives are given the dominant stance in order to show what i have talked of previously and the fact that the soldiers are begging for their lives is being used for the purpose of emotional response again for the same purpose. The fact that this is probably a rare victory for the Native Americans or that the whites weaponry was much more advanced (and not even shown properly in the picture) will not be thought upon. The viewer would be too busy fearing for his/her own life looking upon the vicious image in front of their eyes, the slaughter of men begging for their lives who despite being scalped and brutalized still fight on for their right to be American. The faces of the natives are used for this purpose also their wild sadistic glares striking the American people with fear and anger despite the fact the picture's problem is that the artist wasn't there.

Images like these were used to justify what went on whilst trying to achieve the American dream and they were there to justify the slaughter of the Native peoples who were there first. The images differ greatly from the early sketches a couple of hundred years before that were used to entice people into coming to America which shows how greedy society had become due their want to push out the land's original inhabitants for their own purposes of wealth.