Wikipedia:Featured picture candidates/Single-Handed

Single-Handed[edit]

Voting period is over. Please don't add any new votes. Voting period ends on 17 Sep 2013 at 22:13:53 (UTC)

Reason: A large, colourful, and high quality image that shows a lone Mounted Police attempting to arrest a Blood warrior. Though the relationship between the police and the Blackfoot was largely peaceful the Mounted Police imposed laws on the Blackfoot (such as no raiding other tribes) which they found intrusive and hard to understand. The painting also shows traditional Blackfoot clothing, tipis, and even dance. The painter, Charles Marion Russell spent a lot of time with the Blood (Kainai) tribe in Alberta. The Blood are one of three large tribes that make up the Blackfoot Confederacy, a large and powerful alliance that ruled the northern plains and remains united today with reservations in Alberta and Montana.
Articles in which this image appears: Blackfoot Confederacy, Northwest Mounted Police
FP category for this image: Wikipedia:Featured pictures/History/Others
Creator: Charles Marion Russell

Support as nominator --MatGTAM (talk) 22:13, 7 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Question The policeman is holding a gun to the head of one of the Indian men - is this really "peaceful"? It looks more like some kind of bullying. Also, this image was added to the only articles it is currently in yesterday, so it is probably too early to assess whether it is a stable part of these articles. I also question the factual accuracy of this painting - it looks like colonial-era propaganda with noble savages going about their quaint ways while a noble law man rides among them. Nick-D (talk) 00:11, 8 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]
- If you look at other paintings by Charles Marion Russell you will see that he not only painted Indians in peaceful scenes but also painted scenes of warfare with other tribes, settlers, and soldiers. Russell himself was very critical of the colonization of the west. Therefore I don't think your fears of propaganda are grounded in reality. As far as historical accuracy the painting is very accurate, the dress of the natives is what they wore at that time and the Blackfoot did indeed have peaceful relations with the Canadian government (but not with the American gov). To me it looks like the policemen is offering a trade for the warriors rifle, it seems unlikely one soldier would threaten an armed warrior in the warrior's own camp surrounded by other warriors. MatGTAM (talk) 5:11, 8 September 2013 (UTC)

If he's offering a trade then it is a very unfortunate composition! Surely the artist would have noticed that the gun was pointing straight at the guy's head? 86.160.215.210 (talk) 11:56, 9 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]

So I did some further digging a found a description for the painting that says it shows a lone police officer attempting to arrest a defiant Blood (Kainai) warrior. So it looks like its not really a peaceful encounter at all. Never the less I don't think that it detracts from the overall quality of this image which still shows important aspects of Blackfoot life such as clothing, dance, etc. I updated the descriptions for the image on the articles in which it appears. MatGTAM (talk) 4:17, 8 September 2013 (UTC)

I am not knowledgeable about this topic. However, I do find this depiction somewhat odd. Although one or two bystanders seem to be showing a mild interest, there generally seems to be far less of a general hostile reaction than one would expect in the circumstance. 86.160.215.210 (talk) 20:41, 9 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Not Promoted --Armbrust ^{The Homunculus} 22:39, 17 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]