Indians Attacking a Wagon Train

A wagon train barrels across the dusty plains in this 1867 painting by Emanuel Leutze, and the whole scene crackles with panic and motion. Horses gallop hard, oxen strain against their yokes, and men on horseback swing around to defend the group from attackers riding in fast. Up on the wagons, women and children hold on for dear life while a small boy runs alongside with a dog barking at his heels. Down in the grass, a pale animal skeleton reminds everyone just how unforgiving this journey could be.

Leutze is far more famous for another patriotic picture, "Washington Crossing the Delaware," and here he applies that same taste for drama to the story of the American frontier. The painting says a lot about how settlers of the 1800s liked to picture themselves, as courageous travelers pressing bravely through dangerous country. That framing tells only one side of things, of course, and leaves out the perspective of the Native peoples whose lands these wagons rolled through. Seen today, the work is less a truthful record than a revealing glimpse into the myths Americans built around their westward push.