North American Indians. Volume 1 / by George Catlin.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Catlin, George, 1796-1872.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Indians of North America.

Indians of North America--West (U.S.).

Physical Description:

1 online resource (386 p.)

Place of Publication:

Scituate, MA : Digital Scanning, 2000.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

The North American Indians by George Catlin being letters and notes on their manners customs and conditions. Volume one of two, both Volumes contain 320 illustrations from the John Grant 1926 edition. George Catlin was an American painter and writer. In 1823 he gave up his law practice to pursue his self-taught art, painting portraits in Philadelphia, Washington, D. C. and Albany, New York. After meeting a tribal delegation of Native Americans from the Far West he became eager to preserve the vanishing tribes and customs of the Native Americans through his art. Catlin traveled throughout the American West from 1832 to 1840. He sketched and painted hundreds of portraits, village scenes, religious rituals and games and wrote of his encounters with these fascinating people as he worked. The North American Indians features fifty-eight letters and 320 illustrations from the author's original portraits, all in a two-volume set. Volume 1 ISBN 978-1582182735 Volume 2 ISBN 978-1582182742

Contents:

NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS VOLUME I

CONTENTS

LETTER-NO. 1

Wyöming, birth-place of the Author.

His former Profession.

First cause of his Travels to the Indian Country.

Delegation of Indians in Philadelphia.

First start to the Far West, in 1832.

Design of forming a National Gallery.

Numbers of Tribes visited, and number of Paintings and other things collected.

Probable extinction of the Indians.

Former and present numbers of.

The proper mode of approaching them, and estimating their character.

CERTIFICATES of Government Officers, Indian Agents, and others, as to the fidelity of the Portraits and other Paintings.

LETTER-NO. 2

Mouth of Yellow Stone.

Distance from St Louis.

Difficulties of the Missouri.

Politeness of Mr Chouteau and Major Sanford.

Fur Company's Fort.

Indian Epicures.

New and true School for the Arts.

Beautiful Models.

LETTER-NO. 3, MOUTH OF YELLOW STONE

Character of Missouri River.

Beautiful prairie shores.

Picturesque clay bluffs.

First appearance of a steamer at the Yellow Stone, and curious conjectures of the Indians about it.

Fur Company's Establishment at the mouth of the Yellow Stone.

M'Kenzie.

His table and politeness.

Indian tribes in this vicinity.

LETTER-NO. 4, MOUTH OF YELLOW STONE

Upper Missouri Indians.

General character.

Buffaloes.

Description of.

Modes of killing them.

Buffalo-hunt.

Chardon's Leap.

Wounded bull.

Extraordinary feat of Mr M'Kenzie.

Return from the chase.

LETTER-NO. 5, MOUTH OF YELLOW STONE

Author's painting-room, and characters in it.

Blackfoot chief.

Other Blackfoot chiefs, and their costumes.

Blackfoot woman and child.

Scalps, and objects for which taken.

Red pipes, and pipe-stone quarry.

Blackfoot bows, shields, arrows, and lances.

Several distinguished Blackfeet.

LETTER-NO. 6, MOUTH OF YELLOW STONE

Medicines or mysteries.

Medicine-bag.

Origin of the word medicine.

Mode of forming the medicine-bag.

Value of the medicine-bag to the Indian, and materials for their construction.

Blackfoot doctor or medicine-man.

His mode of curing the sick.

Different offices and importance of medicine-men.

LETTER-NO. 7, MOUTH OF YELLOW STONE

Crows and Blackfeet.

General character and appearance.

Killing and drying meat.

Crow lodge or wigwam.

Mode of dressing and smoking skins.

Crows.

Beauty of their dresses.

Horse-stealing or capturing.

Reasons why they are called rogues and robbers of the first order, etc.

LETTER-NO. 8, MOUTH OF YELLOW STONE

Further remarks on the Crows.

Extraordinary length of hair.

Peculiarities of the Crow head, and several portraits.

Crow and Blackfeet women.

Their modes of dressing and painting.

Differences between the Crow and Blackfoot languages.

Different bands.

Different languages, and numbers of the Blackfeet.

Knisteneaux.

Assinneboins, and Ojibbeways.

Assinneboins a part of the Sioux.

Their mode of boiling meat.

Pipe-dance.

Wi-jun-jon (a chief) and wife.

His visit to Washington.

Dresses of women and children of the Assinneboins.

Knisteneaux (or Crees).

Character and numbers, and several portraits.

Ojibbeways.

Chief and wife.

LETTER-NO. 9, MOUTH OF YELLOW STONE

Contemplations of the Great Far West and its customs.

Old acquaintance.

March and effects of civilisation.

The "Far West."

The Author in search of it.

Meeting with "Ba'tiste," a free trapper.

LETTER-NO. 10, MANDAN VILLAGE, UPPER MISSOURI

A strange place.

Voyage from Mouth of Yellow Stone down the river to Mandans.

Commencement.

Leave M'Kenzie's Fort.

Assinneboins encamped on the river.

Wi-jun-jon lecturing on the customs of white people.

Mountain-sheep.

War-eagles.

Grizzly bears.

Clay bluffs, "brick-kilns," volcanic remains.

Red pumice stone.

A wild stroll.

Mountaineer's sleep.

Grizzly bear and cubs.

Courageous attack.

Canoe robbed.

Eating our meals on a pile of drift-wood.

Encamping in the night.

Voluptuous scene of wild flowers, buffalo bush and berries.

Adventure after an elk.

War-party discovered.

Magnificent scenery in the "Grand Détour."

Stupendous clay bluffs.

Table land.

Antelope shooting.

"Grand Dome."

Village.

Fruitless endeavours to shoot them.

Pictured bluff and the Three Domes.

Arrival at the Mandan village.

LETTER-NO. 11, MANDAN VILLAGE

Location.

Former locations, fortification of their village.

Description of village and mode of constructing their wigwams.

Description of interior.

Beds.

Weapons.

Family groups.

Indian garrulity.

Jokes.

Fire-side fun and story-telling.

Causes of Indian taciturnity in civilised society.

LETTER-NO. 12, MANDAN VILLAGE

Bird's-eye view of the village.

The "big canoe."

Medicine-lodge.

A strange medley.

Mode of depositing the dead on scaffolds.

Respect to the dead.

Visiting the dead.

Feeding the dead.

Converse with the dead.

Bones of the dead.

LETTER-NO. 13, MANDAN VILLAGE

The wolf-chief.

Head-chief of the tribe.

Several portraits.

Personal appearance.

Peculiarities.

Complexion.

"Cheveux gris."

Hair of the men.

Hair of the women

Bathing and swimming.

Mode of swimming.

Sudatories or vapour baths.

LETTER-NO. 14, MANDAN VILLAGE

Costumes of the Mandans.

High value set upon them.

Two horses for a head-dress.

Made of war-eagle's quills and ermine.

Head-dresses with horns.

A Jewish custom.

LETTER-NO. 15, MANDAN VILLAGE

Astonishment of the Mandans at the operation of the Author's brush.

The Author installed medicine or medicine-man.

Crowds around the Author.

Curiosity to see and to touch him.

Superstitious fears for those who were painted.

Objections raised to being painted.

The Author's operations opposed by a Mandan doctor, or Medicine-man, and how brought over.

LETTER-NO. 16, MANDAN VILLAGE

An Indian beau or dandy.

A fruitless endeavour to paint one.

Mah-to-toh-pa (the four bears), second chief of the tribe.

The Author feasted in his wigwam.

Viands of the feast.

Pemican and marrow-fat.

Mandan pottery

Robe presented.

LETTER-NO. 17, MANDAN VILLAGE

Polygamy.

Reasons and excuses for it.

Marriages, how contracted.

Wives bought and sold.

Paternal and filial affection.

Virtue and modesty of women.

Early marriages.

Slavish lives and occupations of the Indian women.

Pomme blanche.

Dried meat.

Caches.

Modes of cooking, and times of eating.

Attitudes in eating.

Separation of males and females in eating.

The Indians moderate eaters.

Some exceptions.

Curing meat in the sun, without smoke or salt.

The wild Indians eat no salt.

LETTER-NO. 18, MANDAN VILLAGE

Indian dancing.

"Buffalo dance."

Discovery of buffaloes.

Preparations for the chase.

Start.

A decoy.

A retreat.

Death and scalping.

LETTER-NO. 19 MANDAN VILLAGE

Sham fight and sham scalp dance of the Mandan boys.

Game of Tchungkee.

Feasting.

Fasting and sacrificing.

White buffalo robe.

Its value.

Rain makers and rain stoppers.

Rain making.

"The thunder boat."

The big double medicine.

LETTER-NO. 20 MANDAN VILLAGE

Mandan archery.

"Game of the arrow."

Wild horses.

Horse-racing.

Foot war-party in council.

LETTER-NO. 21, MANDAN VILLAGE, UPPER MISSOURI

Mah-to-toh-pa (the four bears).

His costume and his portrait.

The robe of Mah-to-toh-pa, with all the battles of his life painted on it.

LETTER-NO. 22, MANDAN VILLAGE

Mandan religious ceremonies.

Mandan religious creed.

Three objects of the ceremony.

Place of holding the ceremony.

Big canoe.

Season of commencing, and manner.

Opening the medicine lodge.

Sacrifices to the water.

Fasting scene for four days and nights.

Bel-lohck-nah-pick (the bull dance).

Pohk-hong (the cutting or torturing scene).

Eh-ke-nah-ka-nah-pick (the last race).

Extraordinary instances of cruelty in self-torture.

Sacrificing to the water.

Certificates of the Mandan ceremonies.

Inferences drawn from these horrible cruelties, with traditions.

Tradition of O-kee-hee-de (the Evil Spirit).

Mandans can be civilised.

LETTER-NO. 23, MINATAREE VILLAGE

Location and numbers.

Origin.

Principal village.

Vapour baths.

Old chief, Black Moccasin.

Two portraits, man and woman.

Green corn dance.

LETTER-NO. 24, MINATAREE VILLAGE

Crows, in the Minataree village.

Crow chief on horseback, in full dress.

Peculiarities of the Crows.

Long hair.

Semi-lunar faces.

Rats in the Minataree village.

Crossing Knife River in "bull boat."

Swimming of Minataree girls.

Horse-racing.

A banter.

Riding a "naked horse."

Grand buffalo surround.

Cutting up and carrying in meat.

LETTER-NO. 25, LITTLE MANDAN VILLAGE, UPPER MISSOURI

An Indian offering himself for a pillow.

Portraits of Riccarees.

Riccarees village

Origin of the Mandans.

Welsh colony.

Expedition of Madoc.

LETTER-No. 26, MOUTH OF TETON RIVER

Sioux or (Dah-co-ta).

Fort Pierre.

Mississippi and Missouri Sioux.

Notes:

Originally published: North American Indians: being letters and notes on their manners, customs, and conditions, written during eight years' travel amongst the wildest tribes of Indians in North America, 1832-1839. Edinburgh: J.

OCLC:

647873177