Warner was commissioned by his friend Charles Erskine Wood to commemorate the Indian chiefs who had been forcibly relocated by the government. Wood was an Army officer who had watched the surrender of Chief Joseph, leader of the Nez Perces. Joseph resisted the government's policies to the last and led his people on a long march almost to the Canadian border before he admitted defeat, saying "I will fight no more forever." To honor Joseph and other vanquished Indian heroes, Wood asked Warner to document them in bronze profile portraits like those of Roman and Greek generals. Chief Joseph, who had invited Wood's son to live for awhile among his people, sat for his portrait in Warner's Portland studio. Wood recalled years later that Joseph had counseled the artist's son to "Be brave and tell the truth."
Exhibition Label, Smithsonian American Art Museum, 2006
