As a child, Edwin Deming came into frequent contact with the Sac, Fox, and Winnebago tribes, instilling a fascination with Native peoples in the artist that ultimately shaped his career. He chose his path early in life, traveling as a teenager to Indian Territory in Oklahoma to sketch. Deming later defied his parents, selling his possessions and enrolling first at the Art Students League in New York, and then for a year at the Academie Julian in Paris.
Upon his return to the United States in 1885, he supported himself painting cycloramas, or backdrops used in the theater, but in 1887 the artist was finally able to travel. Deming visited the Southwest to paint the Apache and Pueblo peoples during the summer and then returned to New York with sketches that would be the basis for paintings and illustrations. Over the course of his career he also worked with the Blackfoot, Crow, and Sioux tribes in this way, and visited Arizona and New Mexico. Later in his career he focused largely on sculpture, and in 1914-1916 he painted several ambitious murals depicting Native life for the American Museum of Natural History in New York.