Catlin, George

George Catlin was the first white man to meet and paint American Indians in their environs, on their terms. In five separate journeys in the years 1830-36, Catlin traveled widely, painting portraits, hunts, ceremonies, and games among the Ojibwa, Menominee, Sauk, Mandan, Sioux, Osage, Seminole, Cherokee, and many other tribes. His works toured the United States and Europe and the widely broadcast books and prints that illuminated his adventures highlighted the plight of the Indians and took some steam out of the prevailing fiction that Native Americans were noble savages who would inevitably be sacrificed to progress.