Art historian Joan Troccoli has noted that Miller’s depiction of the Pawnee hunter in this sketch is quite generic. As with many of Miller’s depictions of Plains men, he wears beaded and heavily fringed leggings and is swathed in “one of Miller’s favorite devices, a red drapery that swirls in neo-Baroque fashion about a mounted figure in motion.” Pawnee men in this period typically plucked the hair from their heads and eyebrows and wore roached headdresses attached to a single lock of hair at the top of their heads. Miller likely met Pawnee people at the outset of his journey, and does depict men wearing roached headdresses in some of his sketches (see CR# 446C). However, depicting the identity of the Indians in his sketches with accuracy does not seem to be important to Miller, as he switches title or dress indiscriminately from one sketch to the next.
