Prior to completing this painting, George de Forest Brush visited members of the Apache nation imprisoned by the United States government in St. Augustine, Florida. Ignoring the terrible conditions he witnessed at the prison, Brush presented a scene of an unidentified Native man set in an idealized world of peace and pristine nature. On the man’s back is a Roseate Spoonbill, which had been almost hunted to extinction by European Americans because its pink-tinged plumes were sought after to decorate women’s hats. The artist used this symbolism to suggest the threats facing Native people’s survival in the late 1800s.