THE GEOKGE CATLIN INDIAN GALLERY. 377 



uincs, has been sent to me as a present, and I find, in looking into it, that he denies 

 the truth of your descriptions of the " Mandan religious ceremonies," distinctly saying 

 that they are contrary to facts, and that they are the works of your imagination, &c. 



Now, my dear and esteemed friend, this charge, made by such a man as School- 

 craft, and "under the authority of the Government of the United States," to stand in the 

 libraries of the scientific institutions of the whole civilized world, to which they are 

 being sent as presents from your Government, is calculated not only to injure your 

 hard-earned good name, but to destroy the value of your precious works through all 

 ages, unless you take immediate steps with the Government of your country to coun- 

 teract its effects. « 



I have often conversed with our illustrious traveler in America, the Prince Maxi- 

 milian, of Neuweid, who spent a winter with the Mandans subsequent to your visit 

 to them, and gained information from the chiefs entirely corroborating your descrip- 

 tions. You should write to the prince at once, and, getting a letter from him (with 

 your other proofs), lay it before the Government of your country, which cannot fail, 

 by some legislative act, to do you justice. 

 Your sincere friend, 



A. HUMBOLDT. 



Mr. Catlin was at once in arms to defend his integrity. Mr. Catlin, 

 on his return from South America, as advised in Humboldt's letter, 

 wrote from Brussels to Prince Maximilian, as follows : 



Bruxelles, December 2, 1866. 



Dear Prince : Since we traveled together on the Upper Missouri, Mr. Schoolcraft, 

 who has published a large work on the North American Indians for the United States 

 Government, and who never had the industry or the courage to go within one thou- 

 sand miles of the Mandans, has endeavored to impeach my descriptions of the Mandan 

 religious ceremonies, which, as the tribe has become extinct, he has supposed rested 

 on my testimony alone. In his great work, "under the authority of the Government," 

 and presented to the literary and scientific institutions of the whole civilized world, 

 he has denied that those voluntary tortures ever took place, and has attributed them 

 to my "very fertile imagination," tending, therefore, to deprive ethnology of the most 

 extraordinary custom of the North American Indians, and to render my name infa- 

 mous in all future ages, unless I can satisfactorily refute so foul a calumny. 



Your highness spent the winter with, the Mandans subsequent to the summer season 

 in which I witnessed those ceremonies, and, of course, lived in the constant society 

 of Mr. Kipp, the fur-trader at that post, who witnessed, in company with me, the 

 whole of those four days' ceremonies, and interpreted everything for me, and from 

 whom you no doubt drew a detailed account of those scenes as we saw them together. 



I send you with this letter my four oil paintings of those four days' ceremonies, 

 made as they now are in the Mandan village, and seen and approved by the chiefs and 

 the whole tribe, and having attached to their backs the certificates of Mr. Kipp and 

 two other men who were with us, that "those paintings represent strictly what we 

 saw, and without exaggeration." 



I send you also herewith the manuscript of a work { u O-Tcee-pa"), descriptive of 

 those ceremonies, which I am about to publish, and on reading this and examining 

 my paintings you will be able to inform me and the world how far my descriptions 

 of those scenes will be supported by information gathered by yourself from Mr. Kipp 

 and others during the winter which you spent in the Mandan village, and for which 

 I shall feel deeply indebted. 



Your highness' obedient servant, 



GEO. CATLIN. 



