Protest of the Sioux, also known asThe Protest, is a 1904 equestrian statue byCyrus Dallin. It was the third of four important statues of indigenous people on horseback commonly known asThe Epic of the Indian, which also includesA Signal of Peace (1890),The Medicine Man (1899), andAppeal to the Great Spirit (1908).
The statue depicts a mountedSioux warrior wearing awar bonnet defiantly shaking his right fist. According toRell G. Francis, it depicts "a Sioux chief vigorously protesting the confiscation of his lands and buffalo by the white man".[1]
A monumental version made ofstaff was exhibited at theLouisiana Purchase Exposition, held inSt. Louis, Missouri in 1904, where it won a gold medal. The temporary statue was retained after the exhibition, but rapidly deteriorated. Unlike the three other statues in the series,Protest of the Sioux was never cast as a full-size bronze, so it survives only in statuette form. Bronzes 20 in (51 cm) high were cast byGorham Manufacturing Company in the early 1900s, and a similar bronze is at theSpringville Museum of Art inSpringville, Utah.[2][3] It was cast in 1986 from a bronze version made by Dallin in 1903 which is held by theMuseum of Fine Arts, Boston.[4] An example of the 20 in (51 cm) bronze statuette was sold atChristie's in 2006 for US$36,000.[1]
![1912 illustration from The New England Magazine[5]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=https%3a%2f%2fwikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aThe_New_England_magazine_(1912)_(14595403570).jpg)
