SETH EASTMAN (1808-1875)

During his career as an officer in the U.S. Army, Seth Eastman was afforded some of the earliest opportunities to observe and document the lives and customs of Native American peoples, focusing on daily village life in his works. Striking the Post depicts an Upper Mississippi River tribe working up a war party. Before a new war campaign, warriors engaged in this ceremony by "reciting deeds of valor and attesting the truth of their claims by 'striking the post...'" (J.F. McDermott, Seth Eastman: Pictorial Historian of the Indian, Norman, Oklahoma, 1961, p. 108)