764 THE GEORGE CATLIN INDIAN GALLERY. 



I was luckily born in time to see these people in their native dignity and beauty 

 and independence, and to be a living witness to the cruelties with which they have 

 been treated worse than dogs, and now to be treated worse than wolves. And in my 

 former publications I have predicted just what is now taking place — that in their 

 thrown and hunted down and starved condition the future "gallopers" across the 

 plains and Rocky Mountains would see here and there the scattered and starving 

 and begging and haggard remnants of these once proud and handsome people — rep- 

 resent them in their entailed misery and wretchedness as "the Sioux," "the Chey- 

 ennes," "the Osages," &c, and me, of course, as a liar. 



From the very first settlement on the Atlantic coast there has been a continued 

 series of Indian wars. In every war the whites have been victorious, and every war 

 has ended in "surrender of Indian territory." Every battle which the whites have 

 lost has been a "massacre," and every battle by the Indians lost a "glorious victory." 

 And yet, to their immortal honor, be it history with its inferences (for it is truth), 

 they never fought a battle with civilized men excepting on their own ground. What 

 are the inferences from this, and to whose eternal shame stands the balance in the 

 books ? 



I have said that I was lucky enough to have been born at the right time to have 

 seen these people in their native dignity and elegance ; and, thanks to Him in whose 

 hands the destinies of all men are, that my life has been spared to visit most of the 

 tribes in every latitude of the American continent, and my hand enabled to delineate 

 their personal looks and their modes, to bo seen and to bo criticised after the people 

 and myself shall have passed away. 



I have devoted fourteen years of my life and all my earthly means in visiting 

 these scattered and remote people, and with my toils and privations I have had my 

 enjoyments. These have been curiously mixed, and generally by chance and by acci- 

 dent, which probably have beneficially relieved the one and the other from injurious 

 anticipations and excitement. # * * 



Art may mourn when these people are swept from the earth, and the artists of fu- 

 ture ages may look in vain for another race so picturesque in their costumes, their 

 weapons, their colors, their manly games, and their chase, and so well adapted to 

 that talent which alone is able to throw a sx>eaking charm into marble or to spread 

 it upon the canvass. 



The native grace, simplicity, and dignity of these natural people so much resemble 

 the ancient marbles, that one is irresistibly led to believe that the Grecian sculptors 

 had similar models to study from. And their costumes and weapons — the toga, the 

 tunique, and manteau (of skins), the bow, the shield, the lance, so precisely similar to 

 those of ancient times — convince us that a second (and last) strictly classic era is pass- 

 ing from the world. 



Mr. Oatlin had been living out of the United States almost thirty 

 years,when the above was written. He did not and could not understand 

 the causes leading to the Indian wars from 1861 to 1867. The Indian had 

 to give way. The reservation system and abandonment of the recogni- 

 tion of tribes or nations were not adopted until after 1869. These meas- 

 ures have resulted in gathering tribes on reservations, stopping their 

 roaming, and thus preventing Indian wars. 



NOTE ON JUDGE HALL. 



The following note on Judge James Hall was prepared by Hiram W. 

 Beckwith, esq., of Danville, 111., in November, 1883, and will be found 

 in " Some account of the Indian Tribes formerly inhabiting Indiana 



