This image of women defending the corn crop from birds is from Schoolcraft Vol. III (1884 re-publication), page 63. The text that goes with the image says: "It is found, among the bands who raise the zea maize, that, as the grain ripens, attention is required, in some seasons, to keep the rails, blackbirds, and other graminivorous species, from destroying the crop. This is a precautionary labor that also falls to the share of the matrons, girls, and boys. Such is the fierceness of these predatory attacks, that a particular kind of staging is sometimes erected in the field, on which the watchers sit, to frighten away the birds."
The artist who captured this scene is Seth Eastman (1808-1875), a West Point graduate who served in the U.S. Army as a mapmaker and illustrator. In 1830 he was assigned to Ft. Snelling, Minnesota. He was there for three years and while there learned the Dakota language. Through his sketches and paintings, he documented many scenes of the Dakota and Ojibway life and culture. Eastman returned to West Point in 1833 to teach drawing and mapmaking. Returning to command Ft. Snelling in 1841, Eastman continued to study and paint Native American life, especially that of the Dakota. In 1849, he requested to be the illustrator for Henry Rowe Schoolcraft. Together they published a six-volume set titled Information Regarding the History, Conditions and Prospects of the Indian Tribes of the United States.