The two portraits drew the members of the Mandan tribe from their dome-crowned earthen lodges. What they saw horrified them. It was their chiefs recreated before their eyes and the shock sent them into a panic. This dangerous white medicine-man had divined life that he must just as easily be able to destroy. The "medicine man" was George Catlin and he was in the midst of an unprecedented mission to record the lives and culture of those he regarded as "Nature's proudest, noblest men."
It was 1832 and having hitched a ride with the American Fur Company on the first steamboat to navigate the two-thousand miles of the Missouri River between St. Louis and the company's far-flung Fort Union, Catlin was making the return journey on a skiff. Stopping along the way to paint the unspoiled Indian life of the West, Catlin's exuberance fueled extraordinary productivity. By the time he arrived back in St. Louis, his season's journey had yielded around one-hundred-seventy portraits and depictions of native life. "For the character and preservation of these noble fellows I am an enthusiast," Catlin proclaimed, "and it is for these uncontaminated people that I would be willing to devote the energies of my life." (cont)

Related Downloads :

{related-news}