Paper That Talks Two Ways, The Treaty Signing

This original 57” x 70” masterpiece is part of Terpning’s private collection and has never been offered for sale. It is being seen for the first time in this Fine Art Edition offering, the last in our 30th Anniversary series. In the painting, we see a gathering of Cheyenne and Sioux men intently listening to a man who is an orator among his people. The words of the peace commission have been translated to him and he is expressing his distrust of those words. Terpning wanted the entire focus of the painting to be on the native people, so we see only the corner of a table and the shoes of the commissioner. The scene depicted here is not a specific treaty signing event, but it is loosely patterned after the Fort Laramie treaty of 1868. The title comes from the Indian expression that the treaty always said one thing to the white man and quite another to the native people.