Gathering Grass Seed, San Joaquin Valley, California

Likely of the Yokuts tribe of the San Joaquin Valley, south of Sacramento, these women procure and transport grass seed, an important food source. The watercolors are based on drawings made by survey artist Edward Kern, but adapted for use as engravings in Henry Rowe Schoolcraft’s multivolume Information Regarding the History, Conditions, and Prospects of the Indian Tribes of the United States.

Born in Brunswick, Maine, in 1808, Eastman was a painter, as well as an officer in the U.S. Army. He received his artistic training at the USMA at West Point. Though known for landscapes and depictions of military posts, his reputation rests on descriptive, documentary paintings of Native American life.