wounded knee photograph
My visual artifact is the photograph "Burial of the Dead at the Battle of Wounded Knee, S.D." It was taken three days after the Wounded Knee massacre in 1890, where the U.S. army killed about 180 men, women and children of a band of Lakota camped along Wounded Knee Creek. This was the last battle event between whites and Native Americans on the Great Plains, and throughout the country for that matter. Most of the photo's argument lies in the unaltered scene it is depicting, which has such a strong emotional reaction with people. Otherwise, I believe the argument being made is that there has been a huge, fundamental shift in power in the American west that will not be reversed.
Go look at the photo at:
http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/BurialoftheDeadattheBattlefieldofWoundedKneeSD488.jpg