Dunton told the Los Angeles Times in May 1913, “This [Taos] is the ideal place for me because there are more varieties of atmosphere than I have found in any other place. Up in the high hills one can get the right setting for old trapper pictures. There are several varieties of sage and cactus for backgrounds, according to the elevation you choose. The Taos Indians are as fine types as I have ever seen and if one wants to paint a Mexican picture he can get a background almost anywhere near Taos that you would swear was a transplanted bit of Old Mexico.”

Although known primarily as the “cowboy painter” of the TSA, Dunton’s early work in Taos includes a number of Native American scenes. For most of these paintings, he posed “fine types” of “Taos Indians” in the “right setting” using the “sage and cactus for backgrounds.” The only real clue that he intended this as a northern Plains scene is the title.

Winter Camp of the Sioux was shown in the 1916 Taos Society of Artists exhibition tour and was the first major Taos painting in the Panhandle-Plains Historical Society’s collection.