The Inconvenient Indian

The Inconvenient Indian

by

Thomas King

Teachers and parents! Our Teacher Edition on The Inconvenient Indian makes teaching easy.
The End of the Trail  Symbol Icon

The End of the Trail is a 1915 sculpture by the American artist James Earle Fraser. The sculpture itself symbolizes the gradual destruction of Native culture and the incompatibility of the old way of life with modernity. King’s evocation of the sculpture reinforces this symbolism but also gestures toward the possibility of an improved, culturally rich future.

Fraser’s sculpture depicts a “dejected Indian” sitting atop his dejected horse. King explains that “both rider and horse have run out of time and space and are poised on the edge of oblivion.” In other words, Whites have pushed Native people and their traditional ways of life out of their native lands and to the brink of extinction.

On the one hand, King acknowledges that the sculpture embodies the incompatibility of the Native people’s previous way of life in a modern, westernized world. On the other hand, though, King entertains the notion that the horse refuses to fall off the end of the trail: “its front legs are braced and its back legs are dug in. American expansion be damned.” In this interpretation, the sculpture reflects the strength and tenacity of a people who have persisted in the face of centuries of violence and cultural erasure. King’s dual interpretation of the sculpture symbolizes his overall attitude toward the story of Native people in North America. He maintains a bleak cynicism about the violence and suffering Native people have endured, and he recognizes how government policy keeps Native people disempowered and vulnerable. At the same time, though, he also notes that Native people have persisted despite centuries of systemic oppression, pointing out that their vibrant—and undoubtedly alive—culture has sustained them. King thus entertains a hope for the future of Indian-White relations and the possibility of a sovereign, prosperous Native people.

The End of the Trail Quotes in The Inconvenient Indian

The The Inconvenient Indian quotes below all refer to the symbol of The End of the Trail . For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
History and Mythology   Theme Icon
).
Chapter 2. The End of the Trail Quotes

But if you look at the sculpture a second time, you can easily reason that the horse is resisting. Its front legs are braced and its back legs are dug in. American expansion be damned. This pony is not about to go gentle into that good night. Such a reading might be expanded to reimagine our doleful Indian as a tired Indian, who, at any moment, will wake up refreshed, lift up his spear, and ride off into the twenty-first century and beyond.

Related Characters: Thomas King (speaker), James Earle Fraser
Related Symbols: The End of the Trail
Page Number: 32-33
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire The Inconvenient Indian LitChart as a printable PDF.
The Inconvenient Indian PDF

The End of the Trail Symbol Timeline in The Inconvenient Indian

The timeline below shows where the symbol The End of the Trail appears in The Inconvenient Indian. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 2. The End of the Trail
History and Mythology   Theme Icon
Racism and Systemic Oppression  Theme Icon
Land  Theme Icon
Wild West shows culminated in James Earle Fraser’s 1915 sculpture The End of the Trail , the most well-known Indian image of the 20th century. The sculpture depicts a dejected... (full context)