486 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1956 



the horticultural Pawnee, Omaha, Oto, and Missouri. The rough-and- 

 ready appearance of Horse Chief, Grand Pawnee head chief (pi. 2, fig. 

 2) , contrasts sharply with that of mild Mohegan pastor Quinney. Late 

 that fall Catlin met the members of a small delegation of magnificent 

 savages from the Upper Missouri, 2,000 miles upriver from St. Louis, 

 who were passing through St. Louis en route to Washington in charge 

 of their agent. Catlin obtained permission to make their portraits. 

 Among them were The Light, powerful son of an Assiniboin chief (pi. 

 11, fig. 2) , and Broken Arm (No. 176) , a handsome Cree. 



The year 1832 marked another turning point in Catlin's career. 

 Prior to that time he had been content to paint only portraits. Nor is 

 there evidence that he had taken extensive field notes describing his 

 previous experiences among the redmen. In 1832, in taking advantage 

 of a unique opportimity to visit the wild tribes of the Upper Missouri 

 as a guest of the American Fur Co., Catlin expanded his activities. On 

 this (and later) trips he would paint landscapes, Indian villages, and 

 scenes illustrative of Indian life. He would also write extensive eth- 

 nological descriptions of the Indians he encountered. Catlin's expedi- 

 tion from St. Louis up the river Missouri to the mouth of the Yellow- 

 stone and return in the spring and summer of 1832 proved to be "the 

 most fruitful journey in artistic and ethnographic material that he ever 

 made." (Mathews, 1891, p. 597.) 



Catlin was a passenger on the Yellowstone^ which in that year was 

 the first steamboat to ascend the Missouri 2,000 miles to Fort Union at 

 the mouth of the Yellowstone. From the deck of the steamer he 

 painted landscapes on the lower river. At Fort Pierre (mouth of 

 Teton Kiver) he painted a large series of Western (Teton) Sioux por- 

 traits and scenes in Sioux life. He also portrayed a visiting Cheyenne 

 chief and his attractive wife (Nos. 143, 144). Continuing upriver he 

 recorded more landscapes and the appearance of the Arikara village 

 as seen from the passing ship (pi. 12, fig. 1). At Fort Union he met 

 and painted leading men and women of those tribes who came in to 

 trade — Assiniboin, Blackfoot (individuals of both Blood and Piegan 

 tribes). Crow, Plains Cree, and Plains Ojibwa. He also painted a 

 landscape indicating the natural setting of that fort (pi. 19, fig. 1) and 

 a number of wildlife and hunting scenes on the neighboring plains. 



From Fort Union Catlin returned downriver by skiff in company 

 with two French- Canadian trappers who regaled him with tall tales 

 of the Upper Missouri. They stopped at the American Fur Com- 

 pany's post. Fort Clark, near the Mandan and Hidatsa villages. 

 There Catlin exploited his remarkable opportunity to record with 

 pen and brush the appearance of those Indians, their villages, games, 

 dances, and ceremonies. Catlin's little party then continued down 

 the Missouri to St. Louis. Soon after his arrival Catlin learned that 



