Charles Marion Russell (1864–1926), also known as C. M. Russell, Charlie Russell, and "Kid" Russell, was an American artist of the American Old West. He created more than 2,000 paintings of cowboys, Native Americans, and landscapes set in the western United States and in Alberta, Canada, in addition to bronze sculptures. He is known as "the cowboy artist" and was also a storyteller and author. He became an advocate for Native Americans in the west, supporting the bid by landless Chippewa to have a reservation established for them in Montana. In 1916, Congress passed legislation to create the Rocky Boy Reservation.
The C. M. Russell Museum Complex in Great Falls, Montana houses more than 2,000 Russell artworks, personal objects, and artifacts. Other major collections are held at the Montana Historical Society in Helena, Montana, the Buffalo Bill Center of the West in Cody, Wyoming, the Amon Carter Museum of American Art in Fort Worth, Texas, and the Sid Richardson Museum in Fort Worth. His 1912 mural Lewis and Clark Meeting Indians at Ross' Hole hangs in the House chambers of the Montana Capitol in Helena, and his 1918 painting Piegans sold for $5.6 million at a 2005 auction. In 1955, he was inducted into the Hall of Great Westerners of the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
