George Catlin - (1796-1872)
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I. Biography George Catlin was born in 1796 in Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania. Iroquois Indians captured his mother when she was seven. They treated her well so George
grew up with respect for Indians and had an Indian friend who was killed by settlers. Catlin was a self-taught artist. He was trained as a lawyer but left his profession to be an
artist in 1823. In 1824, his art got him a membership standing in the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. Catlin traveled with William Clark to council meetings in middle Missouri. He began an
eight-year journey to visit the Blackfoot, Poncas, Crow, and Mandans. He wrote about those tribes and how they were being destroyed. The tribes accepted him and then brought him into their secret rites.
In 1836, George Catlin opened a show of his collected works and artifacts in New York. Catlin traveled up the Missouri River to the mouth of the Yellowstone River in Wyoming,
and saw Western Indians in 1843. In 1844, Catlin published Letters and Notes on the manner, customs, and conditions of North American Indians. It was about a world that was quickly dying.
Catlin encountered financial trouble in 1852. he then returned home and traveled in North and South America until 1860. On that journey, Catlin repainted many of his paintings. He
also painted many new paintings, detailed notebooks, and the paintings with Indian life and the geography he saw. George Catlin died in 1872.
George Catlin was inspired by his great respect for Indians with whom he was raised. He was fascinated by their culture and decided to learn more and tell others through his writings. II. List of Works Letters and Notes III. Catlin on the Web
http://www.indigenouspeople.org/natlit/catlin.htm
http://www.uh.edu/engines/epi843.htm
This essay was submitted by a student of Steve Gardiner, a teacher at Billings Senior High School in Billings, Montana.