George Catlin, 1796 -1872, died unloved and unwanted by his Country, although he provided the most comprehensive record of life among the Indians of the West. Known best for his paintings and cartoons (sketches) his log of daily events gives life and color to his work. How did he fall from the Nation's honor? Not being a politically astute, he crossed swords with influential bureaucrats, administrators and politicians. His work while being recognized for its value, nevertheless was blackballed and deemed unacceptable to being accepted by the Nation's museums. Even Daniel Webster, given the possibility of supporting Catlin, chose not to do so!
Some dismissed his paintings, writings and public speaking engagements as distortions of facts and contained outright lies. Certainly Catlin hoped to use his "shows" for his own financial gain. (Remember this is the same era that the Great P. T. Barnum rose to prominence.) And, he did succeed in not only having successful tours of the East coast but England, France and Other countries of Europe as well.
However in the era following our Great War, Catlin was reduced to producing quick portraits, drawings and paintings for his daily bread. Following a prolonged impoverished time in France, he decided to paint the Indians of the Americas and on an expedition to the Amazon and other regions of South America, up the Pacific Coast to the Aleutians, across the Bering Strait to Siberia and back again to South America, he recorded history as no other man has or will.
Still pressing for acceptance of his work by the United States Government, he was rebuffed once more in 1856, by no less a personage as Henry Rowe Schoolcraft, an American ethnologist and writer who had ingratiated himself to Congress and was appointed to "collect and digest such statistics and materials as may illustrate the history, present condition, and future prospects of the Indian tribes of the United States". Schoolcraft in his works directly accused Catlin's report of Mandan Religious Ceremonies as being contrary to facts; and the works of Catlin's imagination. As Schoolcraft's publications were published by the United States Government this attack was designed to discredit Catlin, ruin his good name, and destroy the value of his paintings and collection. In the book, George Catlin and the Old Frontier, Harold McCracken wrote: "Thus by a pebble from the sling of a pigmy, carrying the stamp of approval of the United States Government, was one giant of American ethnology felled!".
It was popular to attack Catlin. No less a personage than John J. Audubon and his benefactor Edward Harris, looked for every opportunity to dismiss Catlin's work. Fortunately, saner heads have prevailed and it is now recognized that Catlin's observations and his recording both as a journal and in his art depicted our American Plains Indians at a time just prior to their fateful demise.
Isn't it amazing that under the above circumstances, that we know of George Catlin? His works survived, although not in the best of condition is a fact. And now, the Smithsonian Institution proudly claims and displays many of his paintings. So we remember George Catlin and are quick to forget H. R. Schoolcraft. We remember Audubon for his paintings, but not his journals. Perhaps there's a moral here?
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For an easy read on the life of Catlin, I offer you: "George Catlin and the Old Frontier", Harold McCracken, Dial Press or Bonanza Books.
Up the Missouri with Audubon, the Journal of Edward Harris retraces the steps of Lewis and Clark, and Catlin as Audubon and his party collected birds, quadrupeds and materials from Saint Louis to the Yellow stone river. Harris' writings are some of the most descriptive I have found relating the habits, of those who lived along the Missouri. It is unfortunate that he followed the lead of others and instead of being supportive of Catlin was negative. And in at least one instance of which I am aware, Harris was wrong and Catlin was right where Harris castigated Catlin for misnaming a plant species.
However; Rambles and Scrambles by Edward Sullivan, written in 1852, about seven years after the Audubon trip up the Missouri, does a great service to George Catlin. Sullivan had no axe to grind, he was simply a flat-land tourister from England recording what he experienced and saw as he walked, rode, boated and sledded across the region of lower Canada and the upper United States. His depiction of the Indian's way of life as being one of feast or famine, and the shaped attitudes of the Indian toward what their God had dealt them is for the most part confirmation of Catlin's writings and art.
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