THE GEOKGE CATLIN INDIAN GALLERY. 203 



Bush, and Blossom), whom I iutroduce in this place, rather from the very handy and 

 poetical name than from any great personal distinction kno-wn to have been acquired 

 by him. 



'282. C6o-po-saw-quay-te, Womau (the indescribable). (No plate.) 



This i)ortrait is not mentioued iu Catliu's Eight Years — no outline 

 drawing- made by Mr. Catlin, and not noted in the catalogue of the 

 Cartoon Collection. 



MR. CATLINS NOTES ON THE SHAWNEE INDIANS. 



The history of this once powerful tribe is so closely and necessarily connected with 

 that of the United States and the Eevolutionary war that it is generally pretty well 

 understood. This tribe formerly inhabited great parts of the States of Pennsylvania, 

 New Jersey, and (for the last sixty years) a part of the States of Ohio and Indiana, 

 to which they had removed; and now a considerable portion of them, a tract of 

 country several hundred miles west of the Mississippi, which has been conveyed to 

 them by Government in exchange for their lands in Ohio, from which it is expected 

 the remainder of the tribe will soon move. It has been said, that this tribe came 

 formerly from Florida, but I do not believe it. The mere fact that there is found in 

 East Florida a river by the name of Su-iva-nee, which bears some resemblance to Sha- 

 iva-no, seems, as far aa I can learn, to be the principal evidence that has been adduced 

 for the fact. They have evidently been known, and that within the scope of our 

 authenticated history, on the Atlantic coast — on the Delaware and Chesapeake Bays — 

 and after that have fought their way against every sort of trespass and abuse, 

 against the bayonet and disease, through the States of Pennsylvania, Delaware, 

 Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Missouri, to their present location near the Kon-zas River, 

 at least fifteen hundred miles from their native country. 



This tribe and the Delawares, of whom I have spoken, wore neighbors on the At- 

 lantic coast, and alternately allies and enemies, have retrograded and retreated 

 together, have fought their enemies united, and fought each other, until their rem- 

 nants that have outlived their nation's calamities have now settled as neighbors 

 together in the western wilds, where, it is probable, the sweeping hand of death 

 will soon relieve them from further necessity of warring or moving, and the Govern- 

 ment from the necessity or policy of j)roposing to them a yet more distant home. In 

 their long and disastrous i)ilgrimage, both of these tribes laid claim to and alter- 

 nately occupied the beautiful and renowned valley of Wy-6-ming; and after strewing 

 the Susquehanna's lovely banks with their bones and their tumuli, they both yielded 

 at last to the dii'e necessity which follows all civilized intercourse with natives, and 

 fled to the Allegheny, and at last to the banks of the Ohio, where necessity soon came 

 again, and again, and again, until the great Guardian of all red children placed them 

 where they now are. . 



There are of this tribe remaining about 1,200, some few of whom are agriculturists, 

 and industrious and temperate and religious people, but the greater proportion of 

 them are miserably j^oor and dependent, having scarcely the ambition to labor or to 

 hunt, and a passion for whisky-drinking that sinks them into the most abject pov- 

 erty, as they will give the last thing they possess for a drink of it. 



There is not a tribe on the continent whose history is more interesting than that 

 of the Shawanos, nor any one that has produced more extraordinary men. 



The great Tecumseh, whose name and history I can but barely allude to at this 

 time, was the chief of this tribe, and perhaps the most extraordinary Indian of his 

 age. 



" The Shawanos," like most of the other remnants of tribes, in whoso countries the 

 game has been destroyed, and by the use of whisky have been reduced to poverty 

 and absolute want, have become, to a certain degree, agriculturists; raising corn and 



