Charles Marion Russell, American
Buffalo Bill and Sitting Bull Hard-Launching Their Situationship, 1910
Oil on canvas
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MASTERPIECE #3778
/// Russell’s painting is known as “The Meeting,”
with a settler and native man greeting.
Handshakes often project
how each side shows respect,
but equality shown here was fleeting.
/// Shaking hands with a man with a beard,
to indigenous folk may seem weird.
On this land, long their home,
where the buffalo roam,
these newcomers were more to be feared.
/// There’s a detail that’s might seem a trifle.
When you think of it, more of an eyeful.
The Plains Native man planned
to shake with his right hand;
while the OTHER guy’s right holds his rifle.