This painting depicts a Nisenan-Maidu man who may have been named “Wahla” and was likely educated and employed in the household of California businessman Samuel Brannan. He later worked as a coachman for California politician Milton S. Latham, who was reportedly so impressed by him that he commissioned Charles Christian Nahl, California’s foremost portraitist, to paint him.In celebrating and documenting the sitter’s “successful”conformity to American standards, Nahl’s work puts forth a colonialist narrative of peaceful assimilation—one that belies the reality of the US government’s violent efforts to “Americanize” Native people. In Northern California, this violence is evidenced by accounts of Native American children being kidnapped and forcibly “civilized” through Indian boarding schools. Seen in this context, the work illustrates the ways that visual representation can support a larger campaign of cultural oppression.