A Sioux Indian Outside a General Store. Robert Taylor Pritchett (1823-1907). Watercolor on paper. 5 x 5 inches sheet, 14 x 14 inches framed. Pritchett’s accomplished watercolor sketch encapsulates the changing life of the Sioux Indian. This tribe is the largest and most powerful group in the Siouan language family and they are commonly remembered as a warlike people who resolutely resisted Euro-American expansion during the middle of the 19th century. However, the history of Sioux-white relations is much more complex than these references imply, for the Sioux varied considerably in their way of life and their disposition toward the new settlers. On the whole the Sioux got on well with their new neighbors, at the beginning of the 19th century, but as they found themselves gradually pushed off their land to make way for farm settlements opinions changed. In Pritchett’s watercolor, the traditionally clad figure of the Sioux Indian holds a rifle and is juxtaposed against the store front, advertising products appealing to the new Euro-American settlers.