Spotted Wolf’s Last Request

Woody Crumbo supported himself as a Native American dancer while he studied art. His art career took off when his mentor sold some of Crumbo’s paintings to the San Francisco Museum of Art. In 1939, the U.S. Department of Interior commissioned Crumbo to paint murals on the walls of its building in Washington, D.C. Crumbo also painted murals in the U.S.S. Oklahoma, which was later attacked and sunk at Pearl Harbor. Spotted Wolf’s Last Request, painted in 1955, is one of Crumbo’s most famous paintings. It is a tribute to all Native American soldiers, but was created to honor Private First Class Spotted Wolf, a young Gros Ventre Indian killed in Luxembourg who wrote a letter to his parents saying that if he was killed and they held a victory parade, he wanted a soldier to go first carrying the American flag, and a cowboy to go next and lead his saddled horse for his spirit to ride. This print is a copy of Crumbo’s famous painting.