In this watercolor, Miller returns to a subject he had first treated in the Stewart album: Indians and whites exchanging strategic information about western travel. Although Miller usually replaced Stewart’s image with that of a generic trapper in the Walters images, here he retains the aristocrat’s identity. His accompanying text however, changes the narrative of the original sketch. Instead of an Indian stranger asking Stewart what caravan appears on the plains below, Miller describes the scene as a conversation between Stewart, Antoine (who is identified as an interpreter), and their Indian guide. In the Walters version, Stewart is no longer in command of important reconnaissance about the caravan, but instead must rely on a guide and “guard against ambush and treachery,” because “[t]hese guides are often picked up haphazard on the prairie, having sometimes their own projects in view.” Miller thus trades a more original subject matter, the mutual reliance of whites and Indians for important information, with a more stereotypical narrative of mutual hostility. Curiously, although the story changes, his image portrays the figures in roughly the same pose, setting, and gestures as the earlier watercolor.
