488 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUITON, 1956 



Black Hawk, the great Sauk war chief, his sons and leaduig warriors 

 were imprisoned at nearby Jefferson Barracks. He gained permission 

 to visit them and to paint their portraits. (See Black Hawk, pi. 3, 

 fig.l.) 



The year 1832 had been a bonanza year for Catlin. He had assem- 

 bled a large and imposing series of paintings and sketches illustrating 

 the physical appearance, costume, customs, and home country of some 

 of the most picturesque tribes of the Great Plains. Catlin's biog- 

 rapher, Loyd Haberly (1948, p. 79 if.), found that he was fully occu- 

 pied during the suceeding year, 1833, putting finishing touches on 

 his field paintings and readying them for public exhibition. Years 

 later Catlin claimed he had traveled westward over the famous 

 Oregon Trail to the Rocky Momitains in '33. There is no proof 

 whatever, in the major collections of Catlin's paintings and drawings 

 that have been preserved, of his having made such a trip. There are 

 none of the striking natural landmarks of the Upper Platte Valley, 

 no views of the Rocky Mountains, no portraits of mountain Indians 

 such as Arapaho and Shoshoni. George Catlin was a showman. Had 

 he seen the Rocky Mountains in the thirties he surely would have dis- 

 played views of them prominently in his public exhibitions. 



In 1834 Catlin gained an opportunity to interpret the Indians 

 of the Southern Plains much as he had the Upper Missouri tribes 

 two years before. The Secretary of War gi-anted him permission 

 to accompany an expedition of Dragoons from Fort Gibson on 

 Arkansas River to the comitry of the wild and little-known Comanche 

 and Kiowa Indians. Prior to or following the Dragoon Expedition 

 Catlin painted portraits of recently displaced Cherokee, Creek, and 

 Choctaw Indians in the neighborhood of Fort Gibson. They had 

 been removed from lands east of the Mississippi to make room for 

 expansion of white settlement in the Southeast, He also painted a 

 Choctaw eagle dance (pi. 17, fig. 2) and lively views of the fast action 

 in a Choctaw lacrosse game. Osage Indians also posed for their 

 portraits near Fort Gibson. 



The Dragoon Expedition mider Col. Henry Dodge left Fort Gibson 

 late in June, traveled westward to the great village of the nomadic 

 Comanche on Cache Creek east of the Wichita Mountains (present 

 southwestern Oklahoma), and on to the Wichita (Catlin's "Pawnee- 

 Pict") village of grass-covered lodges above the junction of Elk 

 Creek and the North Fork of Red River. Although illness claimed 

 the lives of several Dragoons, and Catlin also suffered from fever, 

 the expedition was a successful venture. Peaceful relations were 

 established with the w^arlike Comanche and Kiowa, which laid the 

 groundwork for the first treaties between those tribes and the United 

 States in 1835 and 1837. George Catlin returned with portraits of 

 Comanche, Kiowa, Waco, and Wichita Indians. He also brought 



