Having spent his childhood in the West, James Earle Fraser became one of the more famous American sculptors of cowboys, Indians, and horses. He also designed the Buffalo Nickel, which "has been called the first uniquely American coin." (Reynolds, 189). From 1920 to 1925, he served on the National Arts Commission, and played a key role in promoting American subject matter in public art. In 1919, he received the Saltus Medal*, the most prestigious medallic art award.

He attended public school in Minneapolis, but lived much of the time in a railway car crossing through the Dakotas because his father was in charge of laying railroad track across the western plains.

At age 18, with obvious art talent, he began st...