Letters and Notes on the North American Indians

by Catlin, George

• ISBN13: 9781108033183
• ISBN10: 1108033180
• Edition: Revised
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2011-09-29
• Publisher: Cambridge Univ Pr

Summary

Although he is best known for his paintings of Native Americans, George Catlin (1796-1872) also wrote books about his experiences among the indigenous peoples of the United States. During the 1830s he travelled widely in the western frontier regions with the aim of documenting the vanishing cultures of the Indians, and managed to meet 48 groups. This was a critical time for Native Americans, as US government policies were forcing many tribes off their ancestral land and onto reservations west of the Mississippi River. Catlin's two-volume work, published in 1841, is a compilation of his letters and field notes, and includes over 300 drawings of people, artefacts and animals. Catlin, following the Romantic tradition, expresses admiration for the 'honest and honourable' Indians, and disgust at 'civilised man' having made them 'victims to whiskey, the small-pox and the bayonet'. Volume 2 focuses on tribes in Arkansas, Texas and Florida.

Table of Contents

Cantonment Leavenworth

Grouse shooting before the burning prairies

Ioways

St. Louis

Pensacola, Florida

Transit up the Arkansas river

Fort Gibson

Mouth of the False Washita and Red River

Sickness at the Mouth of False Washita

Great Camanchee village, Texas

Description of the Camanchee village, and view of

The regiment advance towards the Pawnee village

Camp Canadian

Return to Fort Gibson

Alton, on the Mississippi

Trip to Florida and Texas, and back to St. Louis

Flatheads, nez Percés

Shawanos

Fort Snelling, near the Fall of St. Anthony

Fourth of July at the Fall of St. Anthony

The author descending the Mississippi in a bark canoe

The author and his bark canoe sunk in the Des Moine's Rapids

Côteau des Prairies

'Story of the Dog' told

Author's return from the Côteau des Prairies

Fort Moultrie

North Western Frontier

Appendices

Table of Contents provided by Publisher. All Rights Reserved.