Robert Indiana kept a series of illustrated journals during the late 1950s and 1960s, in which he discusses the development of his work as well as his daily life on Coenties Slip.

In Indiana's journal page for July 9, 1991, he records wanting to do an all red painting in opposition to the coolness of Year of Meteors, and turning to the theme of Indigenous Americans, "keeping very much within my framework of Americana." He notes, however, that the circles are begun in gesso on gesso, "so for a while I have another very cool white on white circle painting [that] would have fit my work a year ago."

A sketch of the painting, The Calumet, appears at the bottom of the page, with a note from a later date indicating that it went into the collection of the Rose Art Museum, at Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts.