| Medium: | Oil on canvas |
| Size: | 20 x 36 in (51 x 91 cm) |
| Inscription: | Signed l/l "F.Schafer" in the artist's characteristic block-letter hand. |
| Verso: | Titled l/c "Indian Encampment" in the artist's characteristic block-letter hand. |
| Provenance: | Found in the parlor of the house of Florence Ellen Ware (1891 – 1971), at 1184 East First Avenue North in the Avenues Historic District of Salt Lake City, Utah; Ms. Ware bequeathed the house and its contents, including the painting, to the University of Utah; the house and contents were sold by the University (date not reported but probably circa 1972) to private collection, Salt Lake City, Utah; thence in 2008 by descent in the family to private collection, Salt Lake City, Utah; and again in 2021 by descent in the family to private collection, Provo, Utah; consigned (date not reported) to Edelweiss Gallery, Midway, Utah; sold for $8,000 in 2025 to private collection, western Wyoming. (See Legend and Note for possible prior provenance.) |
| Citations: | Personal communications with the 2025 collector in December 2025 and February and March 2026. Note from Sherry Lynn Johnson Omans, the proprietor of Edelweiss Gallery. |
| Site: | The topography, as well as the artist-provided titles on other paintings by Schafer of essentially the same scene, suggest that the site is in the northern California lava beds, an area that is currently known as Lava Beds National Monument. The Indians depicted are presumably of the Modoc tribe, although that tribe had been driven out of the Lava Beds area a year or two before Schafer arrived in California, so some artistic license may be involved. |
| Note: | A painting titled "Indian Encampment in the Lava Beds" was sold as lot 17 in an auction of Schafer paintings by C. P. Troy in Salt Lake City in 1886, but there is not enough information in that catalog to either include or exclude the possibility that it was this painting. |
| Legend: | It has been suggested that the painting may have been acquired by Walter Ellsworth Ware (1861 - 1951), possibly at the 1886 auction described in the Note; thence in 1951 by descent in the family to Florence Ellen Ware (see Provenance). |
| Identification: | Title from verso inscription. |
| In index(es): | Title list, Indian encampments as primary subjects, Indians in desert locales |
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