Cyrus Dallin’s The Scout: Civic Identity Cast Through a Native Equestrian Monument

Abstract

This thesis studies The Scout, a monumental bronze Indian equestrian sculpted by Cyrus Dallin and located since 1916 on a hilltop at Penn Valley Park overlooking Kansas City and the West. Emphasizing its story during the early twentieth century, this analysis utilizes local primary source accounts and secondary sources for two arguments: First, City Beautiful Movement values motivated Kansas City’s procurement of The Scout. Second, Kansas Citians purposefully stationed the statue at its precipice to face a direction aligning with desirable identifying markers, referring allegorically to both romantic frontier pasts and industrial futures. These objectives are achieved by examining the physical sculpture along with visual and material cultures it inspired, cultures developed by publics and institutions that firmly establish The Scout as a civic emblem. Finally, this paper suggests The Scout belongs in national scholarly conversations regarding the appropriation of Indigenous bodies in space and place.