Indians with Umbrellas

Fritz Scholder’s imagery in paintings and prints frequently explores the cultural contradictions of late twentieth-century Native American life. He often shows harsh realities but sometimes presents a humorous view, as in this lithograph, in which warriors on horseback carry non-native, innocuously jaunty umbrellas. This seemingly improbable scene is actually taken from real life; umbrellas have been used by both men and women as protection from the hot sun on the Plains since the late nineteenth century.