THE GEORGE CATLItt INDIAN GALLERY. 375 



the Army, to illustrate his works. In the matter of portraits the work 

 is utterly deficient. McKeniiey and Hall's publication of the portraits 

 in the War Department had exhausted that source of supply, and Cat- 

 lin's collection, which Judge Hall had also tried to obtain for his own 

 use, was the sole resource. 



Mr. Schoolcraft was subsequently (after his visit to London) appointed 

 to "collect and digest such statistics and materials as may illustrate 

 the historjr, present condition, and future prospects of the Indian tribes 

 of the United States," under authority of an act of Congress of March 

 3, 1847. He was appointed by the Secretary of War. 



The result of his labors and inquiries can be found in six large vol- 

 umes, entitled " Information respecting the history, condition, and pros- 

 pects of the Indian tribes of the United States, collected and prepared 

 under the direction of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, per act of Congress 

 March 3, 1847, by Henry E, Schoolcraft, LL. D. Illustrated by S. East- 

 man, captain U. S. Army. Published by authority of Congress, 6 vols., 

 4°. Philadelphia : Lippincott Granibo & Co., 1853 to 1858." 



Mr. Schoolcraft, at that time known as a voluminous writer on the 

 American Indians, removed from New York to Washington, and pre- 

 pared and issued, in 1848, a series of inquiries, respecting "The history, 

 present condition, and future prospects of the Indian tribes of the 

 United States." Some 348 questions were asked by this circular. It 

 was directed to all persons supposed to have general knowledge on the 

 subjects. 



The 348th question was: "Are you acquainted with any material 

 errors in the general or popular accounts of our Indian tribes ? If so, 

 please state them." This can be found on page 568 — the last page — 

 of Volume II. The paragraph relating to Mr. Catlin's account of the 

 Mandans, is as follows : 



"One writer represents the Mandans as practising the acts of self- 

 torture of Hindoo devotees, by hanging from hooks or cords fastened 

 into the nerves so as to sustain the whole weight of the body. This, 

 together with the general account of the Mandan religion, by the same 

 author, is contrary to the facts, as understood here (i. e. in Washington). 

 The same writer will also have this tribe to be descendants of the Welch, 

 who are supposed to have reached this continent in the twelfth century. 

 Yet the British Druids imposed no such self-torturing rites." . 



It will be noticed that the doubt as to the correctness of Mr. Catlin's 

 account of the Mandans is stated as existing in Washington, and an 

 argument is made against him in the last paragraph by calling atten- 

 tion to Mr. Catlin's speculation and suggestion that the Mandans were 

 of Welch origin. 



The only answer Mr. Schoolcraft publishes to this specific inquiry is 

 in the letter from Col. D. D. Mitchell, signed Superintendent of Indian 

 Affairs, dated Washington, January 28, 1852. He writes : " The scenes 

 -described by Catlin existed almost entirely in the fertile imagination of 



