| Title | : | Letters and Notes of the Manners, Customs, and Conditions of the North American Indians: Written during Eight Years Travel (1832-1839) amongst the Wildest Tribes of Indians in North America, Volume II |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 0486221199 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9780486221199 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 266 |
| Publication | : | First published January 1, 1841 |
Crow, Blackfoot, Pawnee, Sioux, Comanche, Mandan, Choctaw, Cheyenne, Winnebago, Creek, Assiniboin; wild prairies teeming with buffalo; the sacred site of Catlinite stone — all were subjects of Catlin's letters and paintings. For eight years (1832–39) George Catlin ventured among the Indians of the North American Plains capturing in verbal and visual pictures every facet of their lives. For the rest of his life, Catlin carried to Eastern America and Europe the true pictures of the North American Indians enjoying their last years of freedom and dignity in their native home.
Catlin's book is an adventure. It is an adventure of the painter who was called "the great white medicine man" for his ability to paint. It is an adventure of a self-taught painter who vowed: "…nothing short of the loss of my life, shall prevent me visiting their country, and of becoming their historian." It is a story of the great mysteries of the many tribes of Indians he visited — the mysteries of costume, posture and myth, the mystery of weapons, hunts, and manly games, the mystery of a life still close in connection with the Great Spirit, with the buffalo and with the traditions of thousands of years, all which would soon be destroyed. "Art may mourn," said Catlin, "when these people are swept from the earth." Most importantly, his book is a book of direct, fresh, and accurate illustrations, illustrations that keep the best in Indian life alive.
Now for the first time Catlin's illustrations are shown as he meant them to be seen. Through a process unknown when his book was first published, photographs of his actual paintings have been used to capture the many layers of depth and accurate depiction that could only be hinted at in the line drawings of the early editions. Two-hundred and fifty-seven photographs of Catlin's original oil paintings are included together with fifty-five of the original book illustrations. As a result this is the definitive edition of Catlin that can never be superseded, far more useful than any earlier edition.
George Catlin's North American Indians is still one of the most readable books about the Indians of the Plains, capturing, as it does, the tribes when they were still in touch with their most important traditions. It has also become an invaluable historic and ethnographic document for study of the American West. The Mandan tribe, which Catlin so carefully set down, disappeared in a small-pox epidemic only five years after his visit. Other tribes changed radically, their traditional mode of life seen only in Catlin's notes and illustrations. As Marjorie Halpin says in her introduction, " ... we can share the feeling of gratitude he expressed when he said, 'I was luckily born in time to see these people in their native dignity, and beauty, and independence …."
Unabridged republication of the fourth (1844) edition. 312 illustrations, including 257 photographic reproductions of the original paintings. New introduction of Marjorie Halpin.
Letters and Notes of the Manners, Customs, and Conditions of the North American Indians: Written during Eight Years Travel (1832-1839) amongst the Wildest Tribes of Indians in North America, Volume II Reviews
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Indispensable introduction to scholars interested in American history and its indigenous population. Its prose is somewhat archaic and flowery, but necessarily condensed because of its travelogue nature. It is the detailed descriptions together with the oil paintings that will benefit the reader the most. The book is not thematic, thereby complicating an overview of the similarities, differences and larger timelines of the tribes described. Nonetheless the breadth and scope of this work is almost impossible to achieve nowadays. which makes the work by this author culturally and historically so significant.
Also contains the enduring image of the Dance to the Berdashe, currently in the Smithsonian American Art Museum.
The Pawnee are described as hostile, but without mentioning that their suspicions of any outsiders had been conditioned through earlier enmity with neighbouring tribes as well as transgressions by settlers.
Available on Project Gutenberg. -
I found this hard to read partly because of the writing style (1830s) and partly because of his organization. Another reviewer also claims that some of his stories are exaggerated which is disappointing. In general, I liked the paintings, and his final chapter where he starts to describe generalizations about all the tribes and people he met.
p225: "almost entirely free from corpulency or useless flesh"
p226: "teeth of the Indians are generally regular and sound, and wonderfully preserved to old age, owing, no doubt, to the...lack of ... saccharine and without salt"
see
https://scienceviews.com/historical/i... for the quotes in detail.
https://digital.lib.niu.edu/islandora... for the entire book
He recognizes that in the 1830s, he is witnessing their entire destruction, already started with smallpox and later to be continued by official policy. -
Braggadocious, bullshitty-feeling, overwrought, and mostly boring, I felt compelled only to read a few relevant chapters of this one, mostly those concerning Pipestone Quarry (his white first visit to which resulted in the unique and spirituality significant rock being given the scientific name of Catlinite), the only redeeming thought in my head being memory of the claim made by Osborne Russel, a contemporaneous mountain man and memoirist, that he’d sometimes regale his native friends by translating Carlin’s “letters” aloud as they doubled over in laughter at the inaccuracies and exaggerations, Caitlin’s records of the Old North West apparently being akin to a 19th century version of The Onion to them.
Update: Henry Sibley also confirmed in his memoirs that Carlin’s letters were bullshit, albeit that paintings were passably accurate, but in contrast to Russel suggested his native associations were very angry about Catlin’s bullshitting ways. -
I need to order Volume I, as Catlin mentions it several times in this volume. So far, interesting stories.
