# Indians in Council, California

- By: Albert Bierstadt (born Solingen, Germany 1830-died New York City 1902)
- Date: ca. 1872
- Medium: oil on paper on canvas
- Classification: Paintings
- Dimensions: 15 7/8 x 21 7/8 in. (40.4 x 55.5 cm.)
- Culture: Indians of North America
- Credit line: Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Marvin J. and Shirley F. Sonosky in memory of Harryette Cohn
- Museum: [Smithsonian Institution](https://americanart.si.edu/collections/search/artwork/?id=36855)
- Rights: [CC0 (Smithsonian Open Access)](https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)
- Picture: https://invisiblenetwork.ai/thumbs/web/c9e626c6969600c4248111119ae7e304.jpg
- Who can see it: Tweens profiles and older (museums give no ratings; placed by Invisible Network from the museum's own words)

Albert Bierstadt spent two years in California in the early 1870s, sketching the landscape of Yosemite and the Sierra Nevada. He was fascinated by the Native Americans he encountered on his journeys and made many sketches of their dwellings, dress, and weapons, including this painting of a group of Indian leaders. He felt that the Native American way of life was “rapidly passing away,” and that it was his duty “to tell his portion of their history.” (Letter from the artist, July 10, 1859, The Crayon, quoted in Anderson and Ferber, Albert Bierstadt: Art and Enterprise, 1990)