William G. Boardman was a follower of Thomas Cole, the
Hudson River School landscape artist who inspired many
European American artists to go into the wilderness and
depict natural landscapes. This artistic movement reflected
the ideals of Romanticism, which emphasize emotions,
individualization, and the beauty of nature. This type of
composition, featuring a foreground tree, a middle ground
body of water, and background mountain peaks was
pioneered by Cole but had become a formula by the mid-
nineteenth century.

The figures in the painting reflects Boardman's idealization
of Indigenous people living in pristine wilderness. By 1850,
this image would have been an uncommon sight given the
forcible displacement of many Indigenous people from the
eastern US through policies like the Indian Removal Act
of 1830. Boardman's scene raises important questions
about nostalgia, historical bias, and the ways they reinforce
each other.