The "intruders" of the title could be anyone. It could be a mountain man. The Crow were fairly friendly with the mountain men although they would often steal their horses which they would trade back to them. The intruders could be military, although the Crow were used as scouts by the Army. In fact, a survivor of the Battle at Little Bighorn was a Crow scout named Curly. Or the intruder could be another Indian tribe. North of the Crow were the Blackfoot; the Sioux and Cheyenne to the east.

The man holding the lance is a war chief who has used red flannel cloth to attach a crow to his lance, near the tip. That's an indication that he is from the Crow tribe. They used many birds and animals in their headdresses and decorations. The big cloud to the left could be seen as the coming storm, but there is a lot of big sky in there, too.

- Frank McCarthy