According to Patricia Janis Broder, “In 1915, Fraser received the most important commission of his career—The End of the Trail for the San Francisco Exposition…. Probably the most famous sculpture of the American West … The End of the Trail dramatizes the absolute despair of the American Indian at the final loss of his native land.”

James Earle Fraser stated, “I lived in the Indian country of Dakota, in the land that belonged to the Indians, and I saw them in their villages, crossing the prairies on their hunting expeditions. Often they stopped beside our ranch house; and camped and traded rabbits and other game for chickens. They seemed very happy until the order came to place them on reservations. One group after another was surrounded by soldiers and herded beyond the Missouri River. I realized [sic] that they were always being sent farther West, and I often heard my father say that the Indians would some day be pushed into the Pacific Ocean.”

PROVENANCE:
The Artist
John and Betty Rochovansky, Westport, Connecticut, circa 1953
Present owner, by descent

LITERATURE:
Dean Krakel, End of the Trail, The Odyssey of a Statue (Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 1973), example illustrated, page 10
Patricia Janis Broder, Bronzes of the American West (New York, NY: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1974), plates 178-85 and 489, example illustrated

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