Nine Doomed Riders

March 17, 2011

Got up this morning and grabbed a painting out of my failure pile. Quickly added nine riders and three Yavapai warriors (checking them out from behind the boulders in foreground). Went to yoga and during a warrior pose, started bleeding out of my nose. This turned out to be a reaction to the dental procedure I had yesterday.

Came into work, scanned the painting and realized it was supposed to be five riders and three pack horses, so eight horses, not nine. So, in the final, you will notice that one of them has been magically removed. My favorite thing about this painting is the boulder in the foreground and the bushes on the Yavapai's head, bottom, center. This was actually practiced by all the Indian tribes but I don't recall ever seeing it in a movie. Am I wrong? I must be wrong, it's just too prevalent in the literature. Apaches are seen in photographs wearing bushes on their heads, or turkey feathers, which simulated wild turkeys, so they could peek over a rock or ridge and blend in, while on the scout for game or enemies.

Of course, these Yavapais (and 147 others) attacked the five prospectors at a place in the Silver Mountains (later named The Bradshaws) at a place that became known as Battle Flat. Although the Indians paid a high price (the rescuers of the besieged prospectors claimed to have found 13 dead warriors after the battle) the Yavapais got most of their supplies and ate the prospector's horses.

"There are two things which cannot be attacked in front: ignorance and narrow-mindedness. They can only be shaken by the simple development of the contrary qualities."
—John Edward Dalberg