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)

9781108033183, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 22 September 2011

428 pages, 102 b/w illus. 2 maps
21.6 x 14 x 2.4 cm, 0.54 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 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.

32. Cantonment Leavenworth
33. Grouse shooting before the burning prairies
34. Ioways
35. St. Louis
36. Pensacola, Florida
37. Transit up the Arkansas river
38. Fort Gibson
39. Mouth of the False Washita and Red River
40. Sickness at the Mouth of False Washita
41. Great Camanchee village, Texas
42. Description of the Camanchee village, and view of
43. The regiment advance towards the Pawnee village
44. Camp Canadian
45. Return to Fort Gibson
46. Alton, on the Mississippi
47. Trip to Florida and Texas, and back to St. Louis
48. Flatheads, nez Percés
49. Shawanos
50. Fort Snelling, near the Fall of St. Anthony
51. Fourth of July at the Fall of St. Anthony
52. The author descending the Mississippi in a bark canoe
53. The author and his bark canoe sunk in the Des Moine's Rapids
54. Côteau des Prairies
55. 'Story of the Dog' told
56. Author's return from the Côteau des Prairies
57. Fort Moultrie
58. North Western Frontier
Appendices.

Subject Areas: History of the Americas [HBJK]