Seth Eastman and his second wife Mary Eastman (1818-1880) were instrumental in recording Native American life through Seth's paintings and Mary's prose and poetry. The Bureau of Indian Affaris asked Seth to produce a series of portraits. While at Fort Snelling Eastman wrote Dacotah, or Life and Legends of the Sioux Around Fort Snelling, which Seth Eastman illustrated. Her efforts to record and preserve the local culture filled the years at Fort Snelling. Among the legends she collected was a version of the story of the death of the lovelorn Princess Winona.