Lithograph entitled: "A parley. Prepared for an emergency." Parley is a discussion or conference, especially one between enemies over terms of a truce or other matters. During the American westward expansion there were often violent conflicts between white American hunters, trappers and settlers with the native American Indians on the frontier. Both sides in these conflicts defended their actions as just, and each side engaged in both offensive and defensive action. Sometimes the white settlers initiated the violence by illegally encroaching on Indian lands and other times, various Indian tribes initiated the violence by attacking legal settlements.