Originally published in the October 2015 issue of Robb Report Collection as “A Boundless Frontier”

Powerful images of the American West are inspiring contemporary artists and a booming collector market.

In 2006, the artist Z.S. Liang learned of a mid-19th-century battle between two Native American tribes, a confrontation that began with a faux pas that devolved into a fight. The northerly Kootenai tribe snuck onto the neighboring Blackfoot tribe’s hunting grounds without permission, believing the Bl…