Focus on A Signal of Peace and explore the Political contestation.
A Signal of Peace, along with the three other monuments that make up The Epic of the Indian, has been criticized as contributing to the depiction of Native Americans as a "defeated and dying race," supporting the "vanishing race mythology."However, Dallin's unpublished manuscripts, newspaper interviews, and old letters have been used as evidence that he was an advocate for the American indigenous people, and critiqued their mistreatment by white settlers. A reviewer in 1909 even praised Dallin for his work with Native Americans, saying that "Mr. Dallin knows the Indian psychically as well as physically. He has not only put himself inside his skin, as we say, but he has climbed into his consciousness and studied the way his kind works."While Dallin's intentions in representing Native Americans were initially viewed in positive terms, more recently his work has been critiqued as art that silences the voices of Native Americans, and overshadows their agency. It has also been pointed out that Dallin has made several generalizations in blending together different tribal cultures. For example, The Protest of the Sioux is intended to represent the struggles and adversity of all of the western tribes in the U.S., but the end-title of the work just represents the Sioux people. Since Dallin never made any published statement regarding the correct interpretation of these works, it shows that he did not immediately strike down the interpretations that involved the "vanishing race mythology," possibly to gain favor with white patrons and increase the marketability of his work.The art historian Emily C. Burns argues that it is important to distinguish between the "intention and reception" of Dallin's work. She emphasizes that Dallin's statues were created as "ambivalent monuments that posed a subtle political challenge for those willing to engage in imaginative, critical looking." But she acknowledges that they have come to be perceived by many as problematic and disrespectful to the Native American people.
white settlers Native American Sioux Protest of the Sioux