These card players are from a painting by David Bradley called How the West Was Lost that illustrates the cover of Narrative Chance -- Postmodern Discourse on Native American Indian Literature, edited by Professor Gerald Vizenor. Bradley's ironic images -- the cowboy with a card tucked in his belt; the Native with a bird perched on his shoulder as he bets a deed to Indian land; the three players with tequila, fire water, and corn whiskey bottles at their sides -- mirror Vizenor's critical and literary ideas.
David Bradley's How the West Was Lost, acrylic on canvas, 24" by 30", 1982.