James Earle Fraser (1876-1953) was an American sculptor. One of his most famous commissions was for the "Indian Nickel" in 1913. He attended the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris and also taught at the Art Students League in New York. He often depicted Native Americans in his sculpture; this was due to experiences in his childhood. He was exposed to frontier life and witnessed the mass movement of Native Americans from their land onto reservations, causing him to be sympathetic toward their loss of land and humanity due to this.