The only thing we can be sure about in the Treaty Signing at Medicine Creek Lodge, by John Taylor and Howling Wolf is that they “contain the same overt content-that is the peace treaty signing”. (Sayre) How can both artists be so far apart in their renderings and what influences affected their works? Was it the time between the two artworks, cultural differences, or form?
John Taylor’s illustration for Leslie’s Illustrated Gazette is more naturalistic than representational because he was focusing on what he saw in the grove at the treaty signing but ethnocentric beliefs may have caused him to make the Native-Americans look hostile in their facial expressions, with their bow and arrows at hand. He also portrays them as non-descript so you can’t tell which tribe they represent. The tipis in the back are also no-descript. The Anglo-Americans are portrayed as benevolent peace makers and I can’t find a gun anywhere. There are no women in Taylor’s illustration even though we know women where present. At that time, in Anglo-American culture, women were left at home to take care of the children and household. They were not involved in matters of importance and John Taylor may have felt to put women in the illustration could take away from the importance of the Treaty Signing of medicine Creek. John Taylor’s illustration appeared soon after the Treaty of Medicine Creek was signed while Howling Wolf’s artwork “was done nearly a decade later, after he was taken east and imprisoned at Fort Marion in St. Augustine, Florida”. (Sayre)
Howling Wolf’s rendering of the Treaty of Medicine Creek was made from memory on blank accountants’ ledgers and were called ledger drawings. Howling Wolf had been creating ledger drawings before being imprisoned in Florida and used crayons to draw his art work. Howling Wolf’s drawing at first glance appears to be childlike, but that is because it