This colorful drawing, created by Cheyenne warrior Making Medicine (1844-1931) some time from 1875 to 1878, depicts an encounter between the U.S. Cavalry and a group of Native American warriors circa 1875. It derives from a long tradition of Native American art; similar works exist all over North America, many drawn on rocks, cave walls, animal hides, and bones. Making Medicine's image, however, belongs specifically to the unusual category of ledger art—a 19th-century practice so named for the paper volumes in which the artists made them—created by Indian prisoners of the U.S. Army.

Making Medicine's captivity stemmed from the Red River Uprising of 1874-1875, a series of battles between the U.S. Army and several Native American tribes of the southern Great Plains. The army imprisoned 72 of the Indians deemed most dangerous at Fort Marion in St. Augustine, Florida; Making Medicine was among them. This small group of warriors produced an impressive number of striking and important drawings—more than 1,000 have been identified to date. The artists had a patron in the prison commander, Capt. Richard H. Pratt. A proponent of Native American education and assimilation, Pratt encouraged the men to draw by providing them with paper and colored pencils. Although Ft. Marion housed individuals from five tribes, the artists were all Cheyenne or Kiowa, the two nations that dominated the prison. Most of their drawings depict camp life, hunts, and battles, and some show scenes of Indian prisoners interacting with teachers and soldiers.