Beeler's personal connection to the West and specifically the Native American people stemmed from his own cultural heritage. His father was part Cherokee. Beeler was born and raised in Joplin, Missouri, as a fourth-generation Westerner who grew up alongside the Indian tribes of northeast Oklahoma. Beeler's body of work composed during his life time serves as a living testament – filled with depictions of cowboys, Indians and wild animals – to his great pride for the American West.

Source
P.J. Broder, ...

Beeler's personal connection to the West and specifically the Native American people stemmed from his own cultural heritage. His father was part Cherokee. Beeler was born and raised in Joplin, Missouri, as a fourth-generation Westerner who grew up alongside the Indian tribes of northeast Oklahoma. Beeler's body of work composed during his life time serves as a living testament – filled with depictions of cowboys, Indians and wild animals – to his great pride for the American West.

Source
P.J. Broder, "Bronzes of the American West", New York, 1975, p. 338.