Letters and Notes on the Manners, Customs, and Condition of the North American Indians

The notes, letters and drawings of an artist who spent the 1830s documenting Native American tribes in the United States.

George Catlin (Author)

9781108033176, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 22 September 2011

412 pages, 75 b/w illus. 1 map
21.6 x 14 x 2.5 cm, 0.52 kg

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 line drawings of people, artefacts and animals. He expresses disgust at the Europeans' treatment of the 'honest and honourable' Indians, who have 'fallen victims to whiskey, the small-pox and the bayonet'. Volume 1 focuses on the Crow, Blackfeet and Mandan peoples in the Great Plains.

1. Wyoming, birth-place of the author
2. Mouth of Yellow Stone
3. Mouth of Yellow Stone: character of Missouri River
4. Mouth of Yellow Stone: Upper Missouri Indians
5. Mouth of Yellow Stone: author's painting-room
6. Mouth of Yellow Stone: medicines or mysteries
7. Mouth of Yellow Stone: Crows and Blackfeet
8. Mouth of Yellow Stone: further remarks on the Crows
9. Mouth of Yellow Stone: contemplations of the Great Far West and its customs
10. Mandan Village, Upper Missouri: a strange place
11. Mandan Village: location
12. Mandan Village: bird's eye view of the village
13. Mandan Village: the wolf-chief
14. Mandan Village: costumes of the Mandans
15. Mandan Village: astonishment of the Mandans at the operation of the author's brush
16. Mandan Village: an Indian beau or dandy
17. Mandan Village: polygamy
18. Mandan Village: Indian dancing
19. Mandan Village: sham fight and sham scalp dance of the Mandan boys
20. Mandan Village: Mandan archery
21. Mandan Village, Upper Missouri: Mah-to-tah-pa (the four bears)
22. Mandan Village: Mandan religious ceremonies
23. Minataree Village: location and numbers
24. Minataree Village: Crow, in the Minataree village
25. Little Mandan Village, Upper Missouri: an Indian offering himself for a pillow
26. Mouth of Teton River: Sioux of Dah-co-ta
27. Mouth of Teton River: custom of exposing the aged
28. Mouth of Teton River: difficulty of painting Indian women
29. Mouth of Teton River: voluntary torture
30. Mouth of Teton River: Indian weapons and instrument of music
31. Mouth of Teton River: Bisons (or buffaloes) description of.

Subject Areas: History of the Americas [HBJK]