Great Northern Railway Empire Builder - First Stabber

In this poster we see a young member of the Blackfeet Nation who lives in Glacier National Park in Montana. Dressed in accurate garb, the boy named "First Stabber" proudly holds his axe and stares at us directly.

Winold Reiss (1886-1953) was a German-born American artist and graphic designer. Reiss was best known for painting a broad cross section of ethnic diversity in America in a compassionate, respectful, and objective manner. It was important to Reiss that the Native American people he was commissioned to paint by Great Northern were accurate representations of individual members of the Blackfeet tribe, and not the more commonly seen racist pastiche depictions of the time period. The art he created in his time at Glacier National Park amongst the Blackfeet tribe is seen as an important time capsule of what life was like for these indigenous people at a time of great expansion in the region.

The Great Northern Railroad was formed in the 1890s as the northernmost transcontinental railroad in America, and played a large role in the expansion and development of the American West by non-native peoples. The main line began in Minneapolis and connected Minnesota, North Dakota, Montana, Idaho, and Washington. The Empire Builder line was started by the Great Northern Railroad on June 11, 1929, and displaced the Oriental Limited as the railroad's premier train. The train's name honored James J. Hill, known as "The Empire Builder" who reorganized several failing railroads into the Great Northern Railway and extended the line to the Pacific Northwest in the late 19th Century. The line terminated at the entrance to Glacier National Park, a tourist attraction that the Railroad widely advertised. The railroad company invested heavily in the region, selling land grants to settlers and building hotels and lodges along the route.

The Blackfeet (also called 'Blackfoot') Tribe is an indigenous people native to the American West. Their name comes from the dark soles of their mocassins, which are made from the top of teepees that have blackened with smoke. The Blackfeet are a nomadic, hunter focused tribe who greatly resisted white settlers encroaching on their lands in the 1800s. It is estimated that there are about 17,000 members of the Nation today and many live along the Canadian - American border, in Montana.

This is a poster used in conjunction with a calendar that has been separated from the poster. It has been conservation mounted, linen backed, and is in excellent condition. There may be minor trimming on the extremities.
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