I Will Tell the White Man

I Will Tell the White Man depicts a scene from the complex negotiations between Native American peoples and the United States government that Remington documented throughout his career. The title signals a moment of diplomatic or mediating speech — a Native figure acting as interpreter or emissary between worlds — and reflects the charged, ambiguous role such individuals occupied in the late nineteenth-century West. Remington had travelled extensively in the West and Southwest and made a career of depicting these encounters with a directness and specificity that distinguished him from purely imaginary Western painters. The Art Institute of Chicago holds the canvas.

Remington's figurative work at this period employs strong local colour and decisive brushwork developed from his illustration background. The central figure is modelled to convey both physical presence and psychological tension, with the surrounding environment described economically to keep attention on the human subject.