George Catlin (1796 –1872) Pawnee Chief, Two Daughters, and a Warrior

George Catlin (1796 –1872) Pawnee Chief, Two Daughters, and a Warrior.  A Wichita tribe in Texas.

The Wichita people or Kitikiti'sh are a confederation of Southern Plains Native American tribes. They spoke the Wichita language & Kichai language, both Caddoan languages. They are indigenous to Oklahoma, Texas, & Kansas. Early Wichita people lived in the eastern Great Plains from the Red River in Arkansas north to Nebraska for at least 2,000 years. They were hunters & gatherers who gradually adopted agriculture. Farming villages were developed about 900 CE on terraces above the Washita & South Canadian Rivers in present-day Oklahoma.

The women of these 10C communities cultivated varieties of maize, beans, & squash (known as the Three Sisters), marsh elder (Iva annua), & tobacco, which was important for religious purposes. The men hunted deer, rabbits, turkey, &, primarily, bison, & caught fish & harvested mussels from the rivers. These villagers lived in rectangular, thatched-roof houses.

Archaeologists describe the Washita River Phase from 1250 to 1450, when local populations grew & villages of up to 20 houses were spaced every two or so miles along the rivers. These farmers may have had contact with the Panhandle culture villages in the Oklahoma & Texas Panhandles, farming villages along the Canadian River. The Panhandle villagers showed signs of adopting cultural characteristics of the Pueblo peoples of the Rio Grande Valley, with whom they interacted. In the late 15C, most of these Washita River villages were abandoned for reasons that not known today.

Numerous archaeological sites in central Kansas near the Great Bend of the Arkansas River share common traits & are collectively known as the "Great Bend aspect." Radiocarbon dates from these sites range from AD 1450 to 1700. Great Bend aspect sites are generally accepted as ancestral to the Wichita peoples described by Francisco Vásquez de Coronado & other early European explorers. The discovery of limited quantities of European artifacts, such as chain mail & iron axe heads at several Great Bend sites, suggests contact of these people with early Spanish explorers.

Great Bend aspect peoples' subsistence economy included agriculture, hunting, gathering, & fishing. Villages were located on the upper terraces of rivers, & crops appear to have been grown on the fertile floodplains below. Primary crops were maize, beans, squash, & sunflowers, cultivated for their seeds. Gathered foods included walnut & hickory nuts, & the fruits of plum, hack-berry, & grape. Remains of animal bones in Great Aspect sites include bison, elk, deer, pronghorn, & dog, one of the few domesticated animals in the pre-Contact Plains.

Several village sites contain the remains of unusual structures called "council circles," located at the center of settlements. Archaeological excavations suggest they consist of a central patio surrounded by four semi-subterranean structures. The function of the council circles is unclear. Recent analysis suggests that many non-local artifacts occur exclusively or primarily within council circles, implying the structures were occupied by political &/or ritual leaders of the Great Bend aspect peoples. Other archaeologists leave open the possibility that the council circle earthworks served a defensive role.

In 1541 Spanish explorer Francisco Vásquez de Coronado journeyed east from the Rio Grande Valley in search of a rich land called Quivira. In Texas, probably in the Blanco River Canyon near Lubbock, Coronado met people he called Teyas who might have been related to the Wichita & the earlier Plains villagers. The Teyas, if in fact they were Wichita, were probably the ancestors of the Iscani & Waco, although they might also have been the Kichai, who spoke a different language but later joined the Wichita tribe. Turning north, he found Quivira & the people later known as the Wichita near the town of Lyons, Kansas. He was disappointed in his search for gold as the Quivirans appear to have been prosperous farmers & good hunters but had no gold or silver. There were about 25 villages of up to 200 houses each in Quivira. Coronado said: "They were large people of very good build," & he was impressed with the land, which was "fat & black."

Sixty years after Coronado's expedition the founder of New Mexico Juan de Oñate visited Etzanoa, the Wichita city. Oñate journeyed east from New Mexico, crossing the Great Plains & encountering 2 large settlements of people he called Escanjaques (possibly Yscani) & Rayados, most certainly Wichita. The Rayado city was probably on the Walnut River near Arkansas City, Kansas. Oñate described the city as containing "more than twelve hundred houses" which would indicate a population of about 12,000. His description of the Etzanoa was similar to that of Coronado's description of Quivira. The homesteads were dispersed; the houses round, thatched with grass & surrounded by large granaries to store the corn, beans, & squash they grew in their fields. Oñate's Rayados were Wichita, probably the sub-tribe later known as the Guichitas.

The Coronado & Oñate expeditions showed was that the Wichita people of the 16C were numerous & widespread. They were not, however, a single tribe at this time but rather a group of several related tribes speaking a common language. The dispersed nature of their villages probably indicated that they were not seriously threatened by attack by enemies, although that would change as they would soon be squeezed between the Apache on the West & the powerful Osage on the East. European diseases would also probably be responsible for a large decline in the Wichita population in the 17C.

In 1719, French explorers visited 2 groups of Wichita. Bernard de la Harpe found a large village near present-day Tulsa, Oklahoma & Claude Charles Du Tisne found 2 villages near Neodesha, Kansas. Coronado's Quivira was abandoned early in the 18C, probably due to Apache attacks. The Rayados of Oñate were probably still living in about the same Walnut River location. Archaeologists have located a Wichita village at the Deer Creek Site dating from the 1750s on the Arkansas River east of Newkirk, Oklahoma. By 1757, however, it appears that the Wichita had migrated south to the Red River.

The most prominent of the Wichita sub-tribes were the Taovayas. In the 1720s they had moved south from Kansas to the Red River establishing a large village on the north side of the River at Petersburg, Oklahoma & on the south side at Spanish Fort, Texas. They adopted many traits of the nomadic Plains Indians & were noted for raiding, trading. They had a close alliance with the French, & in 1746 a French brokered alliance with the Comanche revived the fortunes of the Wichita. The village at Petersburg was "a lively emporium where Comanches brought Apache slaves, horses & mules to trade for French packs of powder, balls, knives, & textiles & for Taovaya-grown maize, melons, pumpkins, squash, & tobacco."

The Wichita & their Comanche allies were known to the Spanish as the Norteños (Northerners). In 1759, in response to the destruction by the Norteños of the San Saba Mission the Spanish undertook an expedition to punish the Indians. Their 500-man army attacked the twin villages on Red River, but was defeated by the Wichita & Comanche in the Battle of the Twin Villages. The Spanish suffered 19 dead & 14 wounded, leaving 2 cannons on the battlefield, although they claimed to have killed more than 100 Indians.

The alliance between the Wichita, especially the Taovayas, & the Comanche began to break up in the 1770s, as the Wichita sought a better relationship with the Spanish. Taovaya power in Texas declined sharply after an epidemic, probably smallpox, in 1777 & 1778 killed about one-third of the tribe. After the Americans took over their territory as a result of the Louisiana Purchase in 1803 & the independence of Texas in 1836, all the related tribes were increasingly lumped together & dubbed "Wichita." That designation also included the Kichai of northern Texas, who spoke a different although a related language.

The principal village of the Wichita in the 1830s was near the Wichita Mountains of Oklahoma although the Tawakoni & Wacos still lived in Texas & were moved onto a reservation on the upper Brazos River. They were forced out of Texas to a reservation in Oklahoma in 1859. During the Civil War, the Wichita allied with the Union side. They moved to Kansas, where they established a village at the site of present-day Wichita, Kansas. In 1867 they were relocated to a reservation in southwest Indian Territory (present-day Oklahoma] in the area where most of them continue to reside today. On June 4, 1891, the affiliated tribes signed an agreement with the Cherokee Commission for individual allotments.

Native Wars with the US Army - Utes Pine Ridge 1890-1891

Reproduction of a sketch of the Meeker tragedy at the White River Ute Indian Agency, September 29th 1879, Rio Blanco County, Colorado, shows soldiers surveying the destruction from the fire and battle between Native American Utes and Nathan Meeker, his employees. Identification reads: "(A) piles of ashes, (F) the Agency Farm, (G) graves of the Agent and employés where they fell, (J) house of Sub-Chief Johnson, (M) grave of Indian Agent Meeker, (P) grave of Post, the Clerk and Postmaster." Gravestones read: "N. C. Meeker, Agt. White River, Utes, Killed By Them, Sept. 29 or 30," and "W. H. Post, Clerk Agt. Killed By Utes, Sept. 29, 30, 31, 1879." Title and lettered identification typed below photographic reproduction of an etching of a sketch by Lieutenant C. A. H. McCauley, Third U. S. Cavalry.  Original printed in Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper on December 6, 1879, p. 245.

Utes, September 1879-November 1880. The Indian agent, N. C. Meeker, at White River Agency (Colorado) became involved in a dispute with Northern Utes in September 1879 & requested assistance from the Army. In response, Maj. T. T. Thornburgh's column of some 200 men (parts of the 5th Cavalry & 4th Infantry) moved out from Fort Steele (Wyoming). On 29 September this force was attacked & besieged in Red Canyon by 300 to 400 warriors. Thornburgh's command was finally relieved by elements of the 9th Cavalry that arrived on 2 October & of the 5th Cavalry under Col. Wesley Merritt who arrived on 5 October, but in the meantime Meeker & most of his staff had been massacred. Before the Utes were pacified in November 1880, several thousand troops, including elements of the 4th, 6th, 7th, 9th, & 14th Infantry had taken the field. In 1906 the Utes of this area left their reservation & roamed through Wyoming, terrorizing the countryside, until they were forced back on their reservation by elements of the 6th & 10th Cavalry.

George Catlin (1796 –1872) Patagpn chief his brother and daughter

George Catlin (1796 –1872) Patagpn chief his brother and daughter

The Patagones or Patagonian giants were a race of people, who first began to appear in early European accounts of the then little-known region & coastline of Patagonia. They were supposed to have exceeded at least double normal human height, some accounts giving heights of 12 to 15 feet (3.7 to 4.6 m) or more. Tales of these people would take a hold over European concepts of the region for some 250 years.  First mention of these people came from the voyage of Ferdinand Magellan & his crew, who claimed to have seen them while exploring the coastline of South America en route to the Maluku Islands in their circumnavigation of the world in the 1520s. Antonio Pigafetta, one of the expedition's few survivors & the chronicler of Magellan's expedition, wrote in his account about their encounter with natives twice a normal person's height: "One day we suddenly saw a naked man of giant stature on the shore of the port, dancing, singing, & throwing dust on his head. The captain-general [i.e., Magellan] sent one of our men to the giant so that he might perform the same actions as a sign of peace. Having done that, the man led the giant to an islet where the captain-general was waiting. When the giant was in the captain-general's & our presence he marveled greatly, & made signs with one finger raised upward, believing that we had come from the sky. He was so tall that we reached only to his waist, & he was well proportioned...'

Pigafetta also recorded that Magellan had bestowed on these people the name "Patagão" (i.e. "Patagon", or Patagoni in Pigafetta's Italian plural), but he did not further elaborate on his reasons for doing so. The original word would probably be in Ferdinand Magellan's native Portuguese (patagão) or the Spanish of his men (patagón). Since Pigafetta's time the assumption that this derived from pata or foot took hold, & "Patagonia" was interpreted to mean "Land of the Bigfeet". However, this etymology remains questionable, since amongst other things the meaning of the suffix -gon is unclear. It is now understood that the etymology refers to a literary character in a Spanish novel of the early 16th century. Nevertheless, the name "Patagonia" stuck, as did the notion that the local inhabitants were giants. Early maps of the New World afterwards would sometimes attach the label regio gigantum ("region of giants") to the area.

In 1579, Francis Drake's ship chaplain, Francis Fletcher, wrote about meeting very tall Patagonians.  In the 1590s, Anthony Knivet claimed he had seen dead bodies 12 feet (3.7 m) long in Patagonia.  Also in the 1590s, William Adams, an Englishman aboard a Dutch ship rounding Tierra del Fuego, reported a violent encounter between his ship's crew & unnaturally tall natives.  In 1766, a rumor leaked out upon their return to the United Kingdom that the crew of HMS Dolphin, captained by Commodore John Byron, had seen a tribe of 9-foot-tall (2.7 m) natives in Patagonia when they passed by there on their circumnavigation of the globe. However, when a newly edited revised account of the voyage came out in 1773, the Patagonians were recorded as being 6 feet 6 inches (1.98 m)—very tall, but by no means giants.  French explorer Jules Dumont d'Urville mentioned in the 1840s a Patagon encampment.

1800-1850 Official Indian Wars from U.S. Army Center for Military History

1800-1850 OFFICIAL INDIAN WARS OF THE UNITED STATES 

from U.S. Army Center for Military History

Tippecanoe, 21 September - 18 November 1811. In 1804 Tecumseh, a Shawnee, & his medicine man brother, the Prophet, with British backing, began serious efforts to form a new Indian confederacy in the Northwest. Governor William Henry Harrison 1778-1860 of the Indiana Territory rejected Tecumseh's demand that settlers be kept out of the region. In the summer of 1811 Harrison, with the approval of the War Department, undertook to break up the confederacy before it could organize a mayor attack against the settlements.

This portrait of Wm Henry Harrison 1778-1860 by Rembrandt Peale originally showed him in civilian clothes as a congressional delegate from the Northwest Territory in 1800; but the uniform was added, after he became famous in the War of 1812.

In September 1811 Harrison moved from Vincennes up the Wabash with a well-trained force of 320 Regular infantry & 650 militia. After building Fort Harrison at Terre Haute as an advanced base, Harrison marched with 800 men toward the main Indian village on Tippecanoe Creek, bivouacking in battle order on the north bank of the Wabash within sight of the village on 6 November. Tecumseh being absent, Harrison conferred with the Prophet who gave the impression that he would not attack while a peace proposal was under consideration. Nevertheless, just before dawn on 7 November 1811, the Indians attacked Harrison's forces. In a wild hand-to-hand encounter the Indians were routed & their village destroyed. Harrison lost 39 killed & missing, 151 wounded; the Indians suffered a similar loss. This indecisive victory did not solve the Indian problems in the Northwest. The tribes of the area were to make common cause with the British in the War of 1812.

Chief Tecumseh, Shawnee Nation 1768-1813

Creeks, 27 July 1813- 9 August 1814 & February 1836 - July 1837. The first of the Creek campaigns constitutes a phase of the War of 1812. The Upper Creeks, siding with the English, sacked Fort Mims in the summer of 1813, massacring more than 500 men, women, & children. These same Indians, grown to a force of about 900 warriors, were decisively beaten at Horseshoe Bend (Alabama) late in March 1814 by Andrew Jackson & his force of about 2,000 Regulars, militia, & volunteers, plus several hundred friendly Indians. In 1832 many Creeks were sent to the Indian Territory, & most of those remaining in the Southeast were removed there in 1836-37 when they went on the warpath during the Second Seminole War.

Seminoles, 20 November 1817 - 31 October 1818, 28 December 1835 - 14 August 1842 & 15 December 1855 - May 1858. This conflict began with the massacre of about 50 Americans near an army post in Georgia‹climax to a series of raids against American settlements by Seminoles based in Spanish Florida. Brig. Gen. Edmund P. Gaines, Indian commissioner of the area, attempted countermeasures but soon found himself & his force of 600 Regulars confined to Fort Scott (Alabama) by the Seminoles. War Department instructions to Gaines had permitted the pursuit of Indians into Florida but had forbidden interference if the Indians took refuge in Spanish posts. Maj. Gen. Andrew Jackson, who was ordered to take over the operation, chose to interpret Gaines' instructions as sanctioning a full-scale invasion of the Spanish colony. He organized a force of about 7,500 volunteers, militia, subsidized Creeks, & Regulars (4th & 7th Infantry & a battalion of the 4th Artillery), & invaded Florida with part of thin force in the spring of 1818. Jackson destroyed Seminole camps, captured Pensacola (capital of Spanish Florida) & other Spanish strongholds, & executed two British subjects, Alexander Arbuthnot & Robert Ambrister, accused of inciting & arming the Indians. These activities threatened American relations with Great Britain & jeopardized negotiations with Spain pertinent to cession of Florida (Adams-Onis Treaty, 1819). Eventually the British were mollified & a compromise agreement was reached with the Spanish under which American forces were withdrawn from Florida without repudiating the politically popular Jackson. As for the Seminole problem, it was temporarily allayed but by no means solved.

In the Treaties of Payne's Landing (1832) & Fort Gibson (1833) the Seminoles had agreed to give up their lands, but they refused to move out. Following the arrest & release of Osceola, their leader, in 1835 Seminole depredations rapidly increased. These culminated 28 December in the massacre of Capt. Francis L. Dade's detachment of 330 Regulars (elements of the 2d & 4th Artillery & 4th Infantry) enroute from Fort Brooke (Tampa) to Fort King (Ocala)‹a disastrous loss for the small, Regular force of 600 men in Florida. Brig. Gen. Duncan L. Clinch, commanding Fort King, took the offensive immediately with 200 men & on 31 December 1835 defeated the Indians on the Withlacoochee River.

The War Department, meanwhile, had ordered Brig. Gen. Winfield Scott, commander of the Eastern Department, to Florida to direct operations against the Seminoles. Most of the hostilities had occurred in General Gaines' Western Department, but the War Department expected impending troubles in Texas to keep Gaines occupied. Nevertheless, Gaines had quickly raised about 1,000 men in New Orleans &, acting on his own authority, embarked for Florida in February 1836. Even after learning of Scott's appointment, Gaines seized supplies collected by Scott at Fort Drane & pressed forward until heavily attacked by Seminoles. He succeeded in extricating his force only with help from Scott's troops. Shortly thereafter Gaines returned to New Orleans.

Completion of preparations for Scott's proposed three-pronged offensive converging on the Withlacoochee were delayed by Gaines' use of Scott's supplies, expiration of volunteer enlistments, & temporary diversion of troops to deal with the Creeks who were then on the warpath in Georgia & Alabama. (See Creek Campaigns.) Before the campaign could get underway, Scott was recalled to Washington to face charges of dilatoriness & of casting slurs on the fighting qualities of volunteers. Beginning in December 1836, Maj. Gen. Thomas S. Jesup carried out a series of small actions against the Seminoles, & in September 1837 Osceola was captured. Colonel Zachary Taylor decisively defeated a sizeable Indian force near Lake Okeechobee in December 1837.

After Taylor's expedition no more large forces were assembled on either side. Numerous small expeditions were carried out chiefly by Regular troops commanded successively by Jesup, Taylor, & Brig. Gen. Walker A. Armistead, & many posts & roads were constructed. Col. William J. Worth finally conceived a plan which consisted of campaigning during the enervating summer seasons with the object of destroying the Indian's crops. This plan was successful in driving a sufficient number of Seminoles from their swampy retreats to permit official termination of the war on 10 May 1842.

During the long & difficult campaign some 5,000 Regulars had been employed (including elements of the 1st, 2d, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, & 8th Infantry) with a loss of nearly 1,500 killed. Nearly 20,000 volunteers also participated in the war which cost some thirty-five million dollars & resulted in the removal of some 3,500 Seminoles to the Indian Territory.

The final campaign against the remnants of the Seminoles in Florida consisted mainly of a series of skirmishes between small, roving Indian bands & the 4th Artillery which was stationed at Fort Brooke.

Black Hawk, 26 April - 30 September 1832. A faction of Sauk & Fox Indians, living in eastern Iowa & led by Black Hawk, threatened to go on the warpath in 1832 when squatters began to preempt Illinois lands formerly occupied by the two tribes. The faction held that cession of these lands to the Federal Government in 1804 had been illegal. Black Hawk asserted he would remove the squatters forcibly & attempted without success to organize a confederacy & make an alliance with the British. Finally, when Black Hawk's followers, including some 500 warriors, crossed the Mississippi into Illinois in early 1832 & refused to return, the 1st & 6th Infantry under Brig. Gen. Henry Atkinson, together with Illinois militia, set out in pursuit up the Rock River. A volunteer detachment suffered heavy losses in a skirmish on 14 May 1832 near present-day Dixon, Illinois, & Atkinson had to pause to recruit new militia. On 21 July a volunteer force severely chastised Black Hawk's band at Madison, Wisconsin, & Atkinson completely defeated what remained of it at the confluence of the Mississippi & Bad Axe on 2 August 1832, capturing Black Hawk & killing 150 of his braves.

George Catlin (1796 –1872) Orejona indians

George Catlin (1796 –1872) Orejona indians

"In 1744 La Condamine, entered the Amazon River Valley  at Peru by the mouth of the Napo, calculated its breadth geometrically, or else estimated it simply with the eye, and continued his journey as far as Para, where he embarked for Europe.  The natives quartered on its banks belong to the Orejona nation, which is divided into 3 tribes: the true Orejones, the Ccotos, and the Anguteros. For 40 years the Orejones have flocked to the villages of the Amazon. The Ccotos inhabit, in the interior, the right bank of the Napo, while the Anguteros dwell in the forests on its left...All the Indians of the Orejona race are tall of stature; and their well-balanced proportions and suppleness add somewhat of elegance to the combined strength and beauty of their forms. They have a square face, and somewhat oblique small eyes, rather screwed at the corners. The nose, large at the base, is very flat and broad; the mouth is prominent, and literally extends all round the face. They wear their hair long and loose, and insert through the partition of their nostrils a stick of palm-wood, as large as a penholder, to each extremity of which they suspend a shell. Instead of a strip of palm-thread round their loins, they wear a belt of tahuari-bark, shaped like a wreath. The distinctive feature in their physiognomy lies in their ears, of which the lobes are so elongated that they hang down to their shoulders, and resemble pieces of shapeless flesh. The Ccotos and the Anguteros pierce this lobe, enlarge the opening, and fit into it circular carvings of cecropia-wood of an astonishing size. The Orejones also lengthen their ears, but are satisfied with carrying simple pendants, without any ornament, a peculiarity which distinguishes them from their congeners."  Tumbuya, Sarayacu, Tierra Blanca, Nauta, Tabating, Santa Maria de Belen, Scribner, Armstrong, 1875

Native Wars with the US Army - Bannocks & Piute 1878

Bannocks, 1878. The Bannock, Piute, & other tribes of southern Idaho threatened rebellion in 1878, partly because of dissatisfaction with their land allotments. Many of them left the reservations, & Regulars of the 21st Infantry, 4th Artillery, & 1st Cavalry pursued the fugitives. Capt. Evan Miles so effectively dispersed a large band near the Umatilla Agency on 13 July 1878 that most of the Indians returned to their reservations within a few months.

The Sheepeaters, mountain sheep hunters & outcasts of other Idaho tribes, raided ranches & mines in 1879. Relentless pursuit by elements of the 1st Cavalry & 2d Infantry compelled them to surrender in September of that year.

George Catlin (1796 –1872) Orejona Chief and Family

George Catlin (1796 –1872) Orejona chief and family

"In 1744 La Condamine, entered the Amazon River Valley  at Peru by the mouth of the Napo, calculated its breadth geometrically, or else estimated it simply with the eye, and continued his journey as far as Para, where he embarked for Europe.  The natives quartered on its banks belong to the Orejona nation, which is divided into 3 tribes: the true Orejones, the Ccotos, and the Anguteros. For 40 years the Orejones have flocked to the villages of the Amazon. The Ccotos inhabit, in the interior, the right bank of the Napo, while the Anguteros dwell in the forests on its left...All the Indians of the Orejona race are tall of stature; and their well-balanced proportions and suppleness add somewhat of elegance to the combined strength and beauty of their forms. They have a square face, and somewhat oblique small eyes, rather screwed at the corners. The nose, large at the base, is very flat and broad; the mouth is prominent, and literally extends all round the face. They wear their hair long and loose, and insert through the partition of their nostrils a stick of palm-wood, as large as a penholder, to each extremity of which they suspend a shell. Instead of a strip of palm-thread round their loins, they wear a belt of tahuari-bark, shaped like a wreath. The distinctive feature in their physiognomy lies in their ears, of which the lobes are so elongated that they hang down to their shoulders, and resemble pieces of shapeless flesh. The Ccotos and the Anguteros pierce this lobe, enlarge the opening, and fit into it circular carvings of cecropia-wood of an astonishing size. The Orejones also lengthen their ears, but are satisfied with carrying simple pendants, without any ornament, a peculiarity which distinguishes them from their congeners."  Tumbuya, Sarayacu, Tierra Blanca, Nauta, Tabating, Santa Maria de Belen, Scribner, Armstrong, 1875

Native Wars with the US Army - Nez Perces 1877

Nez Perces, 1877. The southern branch of the Nez Perces led by Chief Joseph refused to give up their ancestral lands (Oregon-Idaho border) & enter a reservation. 

When negotiations broke down & Nez Perce hotheads killed settlers in early 1877, the 1st Cavalry was sent to compel them to come into the reservation. Chief Joseph chose to resist & undertook an epic retreat of some 1,600 miles through Idaho, Yellowstone Park, & Montana during which he engaged 11 separate commands of the Army in 13 battles & skirmishes in a period of 11 weeks. The Nez Perce chieftain revealed remarkable skill as a tactician & his braves demonstrated exceptional discipline in numerous engagements, especially those on the Clearwater River (11 July), in Big Hole Basin (9-12 August), & in the Bear Paw Mountains where he surrendered with the remnants of his band to Col. Nelson A. Miles on 4 October 1877. Maj. Gen. O. O. Howard, commander of the Department of the Columbia, & Col. John Gibbon also played a prominent part in the pursuit of Joseph, which, by the end of September 1877 had involved elements of the 1st, 2d, 5th, & 7th Cavalry, the 5th Infantry, & the 4th Artillery.

George Catlin (1796 –1872) Omaha Chief His Wife and a Warrior

George Catlin (1796 –1872) Omaha Chief His Wife and a Warrior

The Omaha tribe began as a larger Woodland tribe comprising both the Omaha & Quapaw tribes. This tribe coalesced & inhabited the area near the Ohio & Wabash rivers around year 1600. As the tribe migrated west, it split into what became the Omaha & the Quapaw tribes. The Quapaw settled in what is now Arkansas & the Omaha, known as U-Mo'n-Ho'n ("upstream") settled near the Missouri River in what is now northwestern Iowa. Another division happened, with the Ponca becoming an independent tribe, but they tended to settle near the Omaha. The first European journal reference to the Omaha tribe was made by Pierre-Charles Le Sueur in 1700. Informed by reports, he described an Omaha village with 400 dwellings & a population of about 4,000 people. It was located on the Big Sioux River near its confluence with the Missouri, near present-day Sioux City, Iowa. The French then called it "The River of the Mahas."

In 1718, the French cartographer Guillaume Delisle mapped the tribe as "The Maha, a wandering nation", along the northern stretch of the Missouri River. French fur trappers found the Omaha on the eastern side of the Missouri River in the mid-18th century. The Omaha were believed to have ranged from the Cheyenne River in South Dakota to the Platte River in Nebraska. Around 1734 the Omaha established their first village west of the Missouri River on Bow Creek in present-day Cedar County, Nebraska.

Around 1775 the Omaha developed a new village, probably located near present-day Homer, Nebraska. Ton won tonga (or Tonwantonga, also called the "Big Village"), was the village of Chief Blackbird. At this time, the Omaha controlled the fur trade on the Missouri River. About 1795, the village had around 1,100 people.

Around 1800 a smallpox epidemic, resulting from contact with Europeans, swept the area, reducing the tribe's population dramatically by killing approximately one-third of its members. Chief Blackbird was among those who died that year. Blackbird had established trade with the Spanish & French, & used trade as a security measure to protect his people. Aware they traditionally lacked a large population as defense from neighboring tribes, Blackbird believed that fostering good relations with white explorers & trading were the keys to their survival. The Spanish built a fort nearby & traded regularly with the Omaha during this period.

After the United States made the Louisiana Purchase & exerted pressure on the trading in this area, there was a proliferation of different kinds of goods among the Omaha: tools & clothing became prevalent, such as scissors, axes, top hats & buttons. Women took on more manufacturing of goods for trade, as well as hand farming, perhaps because of evolving technology. Those women buried after 1800 had shorter, more strenuous lives; none lived past the age of 30. But they also had larger roles in the tribe's economy. Researchers have found through archeological excavations that the later women's skeletons were buried with more silver artifacts as grave goods than those of the men, or of women before 1800. After the research was completed, the tribe buried these ancestral remains in 1991.

When Lewis & Clark visited Ton-wa-tonga in 1804, most of the inhabitants were gone on a seasonal buffalo hunt. The expedition met with the Oto Indians, who were also Siouan speaking. The explorers were led to the gravesite of Chief Blackbird before continuing on their expedition west. In 1815 the Omaha made their first treaty with the United States, one called a "treaty of friendship & peace." No land was relinquished by the tribe.

Semi-permanent Omaha villages lasted from 8 to 15 years. They created sod houses for winter dwellings, which were arranged in a large circle in the order of the five clans or gentes of each moitie, to keep the balance between the Sky & Earth parts of the tribe. Eventually, disease & Sioux aggression from the north forced the tribe to move south. Between 1819 & 1856, they established villages near what is now Bellevue, Nebraska & along Papillion Creek.

Native Wars with the US Army - Little Big Horn 1876-77

Custer's Last Stand - Battle of Little Big Horn

Little Big Horn, 1876-1877. Discovery of gold in the Black Hills in 1874, bringing an influx of miners, & extension of railroads into the area renewed unrest among the Indians, & many left their reservations. When the Indians would not comply with orders from the Interior Department to return to the reservations by the end of January 1876, the Army was requested to take action.

A small expedition into the Powder River country in March 1876 produced negligible results. Thereafter, a much larger operation, based on a War Department plan, was carried out in the early Sumner months. As implemented by Lt. Gen. Philip Sheridan, commander of the Division of the Missouri (which included the Departments of the Missouri, Platte, & Dakota), the plan was to converge several columns simultaneously on the Yellowstone River where the Indians would be trapped & then forced to return to their reservations.

In pursuance of this plan, Maj. Gen. George Crook, commander of the Department of the Platte, moved north from Fort Fetterman (Wyoming) in late May 1876 with about 1,000 men (elements of the 2d & 3d Cavalry & 4th & 9th Infantry). At the same time two columns marched south up the Yellowstone under Brig. Gen. Alfred H. Terry, commander of the Department of Dakota. One column of more than 1,000 men (7th Cavalry & elements or the 6th, 17th, & 20th Infantry), under Terry's direct commend, moved from Fort Abraham Lincoln (North Dakota) to the mouth of Powder River. The second of Terry's columns, numbering about 450 men (elements of the 2d Cavalry & 7th Infantry) under Col. John Gibbon, moved from Fort Ellis (Montana) to the mouth of the Big Born.

On 17 June 1876 Crook's troops fought an indecisive engagement with a large band of Sioux & Cheyenne under Crazy Horse, Sitting Bull, & other chiefs on the Rosebud & then moved back to the Tongue River to wait for reinforcements. Meanwhile, General Terry had discovered the trail of the same Indian band & sent Lt. Col. George A. Custer with the 7th Cavalry up the Rosebud to locate the war party & move south of it. Terry, with the rest of his command, continued up the Yellowstone to meet Gibbon & close on the Indians from the north.

The 7th Cavalry, proceeding up the Rosebud, discovered an encampment of 4,000 to 5,000 Indians (an estimated 2,500 warriors) on the Little Big Horn on 25 June 1876. Custer immediately ordered an attack, dividing his forces so as to strike the camp from several directions. The surprised Indians quickly rallied & drove off Maj. Marcus A. Reno's detachment (Companies A, G, & M) which suffered severe losses. Reno was joined by Capt. Frederick W. Benteen's detachment (Companies D, H, & K) & the pack train (including Company B) & this combined force was able to withstand heavy attacks which were finally lifted when the Indians withdrew late the following day. Custer & a force of 211 men (Companies C, E, F, I, & L) were surrounded & completely destroyed. Terry & Gibbon did not reach the scene of Custer's last stand until the morning of 27 June. The 7th Cavalry's total losses in this action (including Custer's detachment) were: 12 officers, 247 enlisted men, 5 civilians, & 3 Indian scouts killed; 2 officers & 51 enlisted men wounded.

After this disaster the Little Big Horn campaign continued until September 1877 with many additional Regular units seeing action (including elements of the 4th & 5th Cavalry, the 5th, 14th, 22d, & 23d Infantry, & the 4th Artillery). Crook & Terry joined forces on the Rosebud on 10 August 1876, but most of the Indians slipped through the troops, although many came into the agencies. Fighting in the fall & winter of 1876-77 consisted mostly of skirmishes & raids, notably Crook's capture of American Horse's village at Slim Buttes (South Dakota) on 9 September & of Dull Knife's village in the Big Horn Mountains on 26 November, & Col. Nelson A. Miles' attack on Crazy Horse's camp in the Wolf Mountains on 8 January. By the summer of 1877 most of the Sioux were back on the reservations. Crazy Horse had come in & was killed resisting arrest at Fort Robinson (Nebraska) in September. Sitting Bull, with a small band of Sioux, escaped to Canada but surrendered at Fort Buford (Montana) in July 1881.

George Catlin (1796 –1872) Marahua Indians

George Catlin (1796 –1872) Marahua Indians

Brazil's Javari River, the most important river of the region, which since 1851 forms the border with Peru, left bank was inhabited by the Mayoruna and Marahua Indians; its right bank by the Huaraycus and the Culinos. These two nations live buried in the interior of the forests, and seldom showed themselves on the banks of the Amazon.

Native Wars with the US Army - Apaches 1873 & 1885-86

Apaches, 1873 & 1885-1866. After Brig. Gen. George Crook became commander of the Department of Arizona in 1871 he undertook a series of winter campaigns by small detachments which pacified the region by 1874. In the years that followed, the Indian Bureau's policy of frequent removal created new dissatisfaction among the Apaches. Dissident elements went off the reservations, led by Chato, Victorio, Geronimo, & other chiefs, & raided settlements along both aides of the border, escaping into Mexico or the United States as circumstances dictated. To combat this practice the two nations agreed in 1882 to permit reasonable pursuit of Indian raiders by the troops of each country across the international boundary.

Victorio was killed by Mexican troops in 1880, but Chato & Geronimo remained at large until May 1883 when they surrendered to General Crook & elements of the 6th Cavalry, reinforced by Apache scouts, at a point some 200 miles inside Mexico. Two years later Geronimo & about 150 Chiricahua Apaches again left their White Mountain reservation (Arizona) & once more terrorized the border region. Elements of the 4th Cavalry & Apache scouts immediately took up pursuit of the Chiricahua renegades. In January 1886 Capt. Emmet Crawford & 80 Apache scouts attacked Geronimo's main band some 200 miles south of the border, but the Indians escaped into the mountains. Although Crawford was killed by Mexican irregulars shortly thereafter, his second in command, 1st Lt. M. P. Maus, was able to negotiate Geronimo's surrender to General Crook in late March 1886. But Geronimo & part of his band escaped within a few days (29 March). Capt. Henry W. Lawton's column (elements of the 4th Cavalry, 8th Infantry, & Apache scouts) surprised Geronimo's camp in the mountains of Mexico on 20 July. Although the Chiricahuas again fled, by the end of August they indicated a willingness to surrender. On 4 September 1886, 1st Lt. Charles B. Gatewood of Lawton's command negotiated the formal surrender to Brig. Gen. Nelson Miles who had relieved General Crook in April. Geronimo sad his band were removed to Florida & finally to the Fort Sill military reservation.

George Catlin (1796 –1872) Four Mura Indians

George Catlin (1796 –1872) Four Mura Indians

Mura Indians are a South American Indian people of the Amazon tropical forest of western Brazil. The Mura originally inhabited the right bank of the lower Madeira River near the mouth of the Jamari River. Contact with whites led them to adopt guerrilla tactics; they spread downstream to the Purus River, raiding sedentary farmers along the way. By 1774 the Mura expansion had been countered by a local Brazilian campaign of extermination. In 1786, weakened by disease and by losses suffered at the hands of the aggressive Mundurukú, the Mura made peace with the colonials. The Mura are primarily fishermen of the rivers. A family spends much of its time in its canoe. The Mura are approaching extinction as an ethnic population. They now speak Portuguese, and few remember the Mura language.

Native Wars with the US Army - Modocs 1872-73

Modocs, 1872-1873. The Bloc Campaign of 1872-73 was the last Indian war of consequence on the Pacific Coast. When the Modocs, a small & restless tribe, were placed on a reservation with the Klamaths, their traditional enemies, they soon found the situation intolerable. A majority of the Modocs soon left the reservation, led by a chief known as "Captain Jack," & returned to their old lands. A detail of 1st Cavalry troops under Capt. James Jackson became involved in a skirmish with these Modocs on Lost River on 29 November 1872 when the troops sought to disarm then & arrest the leaders.

Following the skirmish, Captain Jack & about 120 warriors with ample supplies retreated to a naturally fortified area in the Lava Beds east of Mount Shasta. On 17 January 1873 Col. Alvan Gillem's detachment of some 400 men, half of them Regulars from the 1st Cavalry & 21st Infantry, attacked the Modoc positions, but the troops could make no progress in the almost impassable terrain, suffering a loss of 10 killed & 28 wounded.

By spring of 1873 Brig. Gen. Edward R. S. Canby, commander of the Department of the Pacific, had collected about 1,000 men (elements of the 1st Cavalry, 12th & 21st Infantry, & 4th Artillery) to besiege the Modocs. Indian Bureau officials failed in attempts at negotiation, but General Canby & three civilian commissioners were able to arrange a parley with an equal number of Modoc representatives on 11 April. The Indians treacherously violated the truce. Captain Jack, himself, killed General Canby while others killed one commissioner, Eleazer Thomas, & wounded another. The siege was resumed.

Brig. Gen. Jefferson C. Davis, who arrived in May to replace Canby pushed columns deep into the Lava Beds, hurrying the Indians day & night with mortar & rifle fire. When their source of water was cut off, the Indians were finally forced into the open, & all were captured by 1 June 1873. Captain Jack & two others were hanged, & the rest of the tribe was removed to the Indian Territory. During the course of the siege some 80 white men were killed.

George Catlin (1796 –1872) "Four goo-a-give indians"

George Catlin (1796 –1872) Four goo-a-give indians

A Painter among the Indians

By George Catlin (1796–1872)

 [Born in Wilkesbarre, Penn., 1796. Died in Jersey City, N. J., 1872. Illustrations of the Manners, Customs, and Condition of the North American Indians, 1841.]

PERHAPS nothing ever more completely astonished these people than the operations of my brush. The art of portrait-painting was a subject entirely new to them, and, of course, unthought of; and my appearance here has commenced a new era in the arcana of medicine or mystery. Soon after arriving here, I commenced and finished the portraits of the two principal chiefs. This was done without having awakened the curiosity of the villagers, as they had heard nothing of what was going on, and even the chiefs themselves seemed to be ignorant of my designs, until the pictures were completed. No one else was admitted into my lodge during the operation; and, when finished, it was exceedingly amusing to see them mutually recognizing each other’s likeness, and assuring each other of the striking resemblance which they bore to the originals. Both of these pressed their hand over their mouths awhile in dead silence (a custom amongst most tribes, when anything surprises them very much); looking attentively upon the portraits and myself, and upon the palette and colors with which these unaccountable effects had been produced.

  They then walked up to me in the most gentle manner, taking me in turn by the hand with a firm grip; with head and eyes inclined downwards, and in a tone a little above a whisper, pronounced the words, “te-ho-pe-nee Wash-ee!” and walked off….

  That moment conferred an honor on me, which you as yet do not understand. I took the degree (not of Doctor of Laws, nor Bachelor of Arts) of Master of Arts—of mysteries—of magic, and of hocus-pocus. I was recognized in that short sentence as a “great medicine white man;” and since that time, have been regularly installed medicine or mystery, which is the most honorable degree that could be conferred upon me here; and I now hold a place amongst the most eminent and envied personages, the doctors and conjurati of this titled community….  

  After I had finished the portraits of the two chiefs, and they had returned to their wigwams, and deliberately seated themselves by their respective firesides, and silently smoked a pipe or two (according to an universal custom), they gradually began to tell what had taken place; and at length crowds of gaping listeners, with mouths wide open, thronged their lodges; and a throng of women and girls were about my house, and through every crack and crevice I could see their glistening eyes, which were piercing my hut in a hundred places, from a natural and restless propensity, a curiosity to see what was going on within. An hour or more passed in this way, and the soft and silken throng continually increased, until some hundreds of them were clung, and piled about my wigwam like a swarm of bees hanging on the front and sides of their hive.  

  During this time, not a man made his appearance about the premises—after a while, however, they could be seen, folded in their robes, gradually siding up towards the lodge, with a silly look upon their faces, which confessed at once that curiosity was leading them reluctantly, where their pride checked and forbade them to go. The rush soon after became general, and the chiefs and medicine-men took possession of my room, placing soldiers (braves with spears in their hands) at the door, admitting no one, but such as were allowed by the chiefs, to come in.

  Monsieur Kipp (the agent of the Fur Company, who has lived here eight years, and to whom, for his politeness and hospitality, I am much indebted) at this time took a seat with the chiefs, and speaking their language fluently, he explained to them my views and the objects for which I was painting these portraits; and also expounded to them the manner in which they were made,—at which they seemed all to be very much pleased. The necessity at this time of exposing the portraits to the view of the crowds who were assembled around the house, became imperative, and they were held up together over the door, so that the whole village had a chance to see and recognize their chiefs. The effect upon so mixed a multitude, who as yet had heard no way of accounting for them, was novel and really laughable. The likenesses were instantly recognized, and many of the gaping multitude commenced yelping; some were stamping off in the jarring dance—others were singing, and others again were crying—hundreds covered their mouths with their hands and were mute; others, indignant, drove their spears frightfully into the ground, and some threw a reddened arrow at the sun, and went home to their wigwams….

  I stepped forth, and was instantly hemmed in in the throng. Women were gaping and gazing—and warriors and braves were offering me their hands—whilst little boys and girls, by dozens, were struggling through the crowd to touch me with the ends of their fingers; and whilst I was engaged, from the waist upwards, in fending off the throng and shaking hands, my legs were assailed (not unlike the nibbling of little fish, when I have been standing in deep water) by children, who were creeping between the legs of the by-standers for the curiosity or honor of touching me with the end of their finger. The eager curiosity and expression of astonishment with which they gazed upon me, plainly showed that they looked upon me as some strange and unaccountable being. They pronounced me the greatest medicine-man in the world; for they said I had made living beings,—they said they could see their chiefs alive in two places—those that I had made were a little alive—they could see their eyes move—could see them smile and laugh, and that if they could laugh they could certainly speak, if they should try, and they must therefore have some life in them.

  The squaws generally agreed that they had discovered life enough in them to render my medicine too great for the Mandans; saying that such an operation could not be performed without taking away from the original something of his existence, which I put in the picture, and they could see it move, could see it stir. This curtailing of the natural existence, for the purpose of instilling life into the secondary one, they decided to be an useless and destructive operation, and one which was calculated to do great mischief in their happy community; and they commenced a mournful and doleful chaunt against me, crying and weeping bitterly through the village, proclaiming me a most “dangerous man; one who could make living persons by looking at them; and at the same time, could, as a matter of course, destroy life in the same way, if I chose. That my medicine was dangerous to their lives, and that I must leave the village immediately. That bad luck would happen to those whom I painted—that I was to take a part of the existence of those whom I painted, and carry it home with me amongst the white people, and that when they died they would never sleep quiet in their graves.”  

  In this way the women and some old quack medicine-men together had succeeded in raising an opposition against me; and the reasons they assigned were so plausible and so exactly suited for their superstitious feelings that they completely succeeded in exciting fears and a general panic in the minds of a number of chiefs who had agreed to sit for their portraits, and my operations were, of course, for several days completely at a stand. A grave council was held on the subject from day to day, and there seemed great difficulty in deciding what was to be done with me and the dangerous art which I was practising; and which had far exceeded their original expectations. I finally got admittance to their sacred conclave, and assured them, that I was but a man like themselves,—that my art had no medicine or mystery about it, but could be learned by any of them if they would practise it as long as I had—that my intentions towards them were of the most friendly kind, and that in the country where I lived, brave men never allowed their squaws to frighten them with their foolish whims and stories. They all immediately arose, shook me by the hand, and dressed themselves for their pictures. After this, there was no further difficulty about sitting; all were ready to be painted,—the squaws were silent, and my painting-room a continual resort for the chiefs, and braves, and medicine-men; where they waited with impatience for the completion of each one’s picture,—that they could decide as to the likeness as it came from under the brush; that they could laugh, and yell, and sing a new song, and smoke a fresh pipe to the health and success of him who had just been safely delivered from the hands of the “white medicine.”…

  I was waited upon in due form and ceremony by the medicine-men, who received me upon the old adage, “similis simili gaudet.” I was invited to a feast, and they presented me a she-shee-quoi, or a doctor’s rattle, and also a magical wand, or a doctor’s staff, strung with claws of the grizzly bear, with hoofs of the antelope—with ermine—with wild sage and bats’ wings—and perfumed withal with the choice and savory odor of the pole-cat—a dog was sacrificed and hung by the legs over my wigwam, and I was therefore and thereby initiated into (and countenanced in the practice of) the arcana of medicine or mystery, and considered a Fellow of the Extraordinary Society of Conjurati.  

  Since this signal success and good fortune in my operations, things have gone on very pleasantly, and I have had a great deal of amusement. Some altercation has taken place, however, amongst the chiefs and braves, with regard to standing or rank, of which they are exceedingly jealous, and they must sit (if at all) in regular order, according to that rank; the trouble is all settled at last, however, and I have had no want of subjects, though a great many have become again alarmed, and are unwilling to sit, for fear, as some say, that they will die prematurely if painted; and, as others say, that if they are painted, the picture will live after they are dead, and they cannot sleep quiet in their graves.

  I have had several most remarkable occurrences in my painting-room, of this kind, which have made me some everlasting enemies here; though the minds and feelings of the chiefs and medicine-men have not been affected by them. There have been three or four instances where proud and aspiring young men have been in my lodge, and after gazing at the portraits of the head chief across the room (which sits looking them in the eyes), have raised their hands before their faces and walked around to the side of the lodge, on the right or left, from whence to take a long and fair side-look at the chief, instead of staring him full in the face (which is a most unpardonable offence in all Indian tribes); and after having got in that position, and cast their eyes again upon the portrait which was yet looking them full in the face, have thrown their robes over their heads and bolted out of the wigwam, filled equally with astonishment and indignation; averring, as they always will in a sullen mood, that they “saw the eyes move,”—that as they walked around the room “the eyes of the portrait followed them.” With these unfortunate gentlemen, repeated efforts have been made by the traders, and also by the chiefs and doctors, who understand the illusion, to convince them of their error, by explaining the mystery; but they will not hear to any explanation whatever, saying, that “what they see with their eyes is always evidence enough for them;” “that they always believe their own eyes sooner than a hundred tongues,” and all efforts to get them a second time to my room, or into my company in any place, have proved entirely unsuccessful.

  I had trouble brewing also the other day, from another source; one of the “medicines” commenced howling and haranguing around my domicile, amongst the throng that was outside, proclaiming that all who were inside and being painted were fools and would soon die; and very materially affecting thereby my popularity. I however sent for him, and called him in the next morning, when I was alone, having only the interpreter with me; telling him that I had had my eye upon him for several days, and had been so well pleased with his looks, that I had taken great pains to find out his history, which had been explained by all as one of a most extraordinary kind, and his character and standing in his tribe as worthy of my particular notice; and that I had several days since resolved that as soon as I had practised my hand long enough upon the others, to get the stiffness out of it (after paddling my canoe so far as I had) and make it to work easily and successfully, I would begin on his portrait, which I was then prepared to commence on that day, and that I felt as if I could do him justice. He shook me by the hand, giving me the “Doctor’s grip,” and beckoned me to sit down, which I did, and we smoked a pipe together. After this was over, he told me, that “he had no inimical feelings towards me, although he had been telling the chiefs that they were all fools, and all would die who had their portraits painted—that although he had set the old women and children all crying, and even made some of the young warriors tremble, yet he had no unfriendly feelings towards me, nor any fear or dread of my art.” “I know you are a good man (said he), I know you will do no harm to any one; your medicine is great and you are a great ‘medicine-man.’ I would like to see myself very well, and so would all of the chiefs; but they have all been many days in this medicine-house, and they all know me well, and they have not asked me to come in and be made alive with paints—my friend, I am glad that my people have told you who I am—my heart is glad—I will go to my wigwam and eat, and in a little while I will come, and you may go to work;”—another pipe was lit and smoked, and he got up and went off. I prepared my canvas and palette, and whistled away the time until twelve o’clock, before he made his appearance; having used the whole of the fore-part of the day at his toilette, arranging his dress and ornamenting his body for his picture.  

  At that hour then, bedaubed and streaked with paints of various colors, with bears’ grease and charcoal, with medicine-pipes in his hands and foxes’ tails attached to his heels, entered Mah-to-he-hah (the old bear), with a train of his own profession, who seated themselves around him; and also a number of boys, whom it was requested should remain with him, and whom I supposed it possible might have been pupils, whom he was instructing in the mysteries of materia medica and hoca poca. He took his position in the middle of the room, waving his eagle calumets in each hand, and singing his medicine-song which he sings over his dying patient, looking me full in the face until I completed his picture, which I painted at full length. His vanity has been completely gratified in the operation; he lies for hours together, day after day, in my room, in front of his picture, gazing intensely upon it; lights my pipe for me while I am painting—shakes hands with me a dozen times on each day, and talks of me, and enlarges upon my medicine virtues and my talents wherever he goes; so that this new difficulty is now removed, and instead of preaching against me, he is one of my strongest and most enthusiastic friends and aids in the country.

George Catlin (1796–1872) - Native Wars with the US Army - Comanches 1867-75

George Catlin (1796-1872), Comanche War Party on the March, Fully Equipped, 1846-1848.  George Catlin’s descriptions of Native Americans reveal his respect for the tribes and nations that he feared would soon vanish. “Every one of these red sons of the forest (or rather of the prairie) is a knight and lord,” he wrote, the only things which he deems worthy of his exertions are to mount his snorting steed, with his bow and quiver slung, his arrow-shield upon his arm, and his long lance glistening in the war-parade . . .” (Catlin, Letters and Notes, vol. 1, no. 4, 1841

Comanches, 1867-1875. Maj. Gen. Philip Sheridan, commander of the Department of the Missouri, instituted winter campaigning in 1868 as a means of locating the elusive Indian bands of the region. Notable incidents in the campaigns from then until 1875 against the Indians in the border regions of Kansas, Colorado, New Mexico, & Texas were the nine-day defense of Beecher's Island against Roman Nose's band in September 1868 by Maj. George A. Forsyth's detachment; the defeat of Black Kettle on the Washita (Oklahoma) on 27 November 1868 by Lt. Col. Custer & the 7th Cavalry; the crushing of the Cheyennes under Tall Bull at Summit Spring (Colorado) on 13 May 1869; the assault on the Kiowa-Comanche camp in Palo Duro Canyon on 27 September 1875 by Col. Ranald S. Mackenzie; & the attack & rout of Greybeard's big Cheyenne encampment in the Texas Panhandle on 8 November 1875 by 1st Lt. Frank Baldwin's detachment, spearheaded by infantry loaded in mule wagons.

George Catlin (1796 –1872) Four Arowak (Arawak) Indians

George Catlin (1796 –1872) Four Arowak (Arawak) Indians.  Catlin described them as "A small & friendly Native American tribe of British Guiana. 1852." 

Generally. the Arawak were Native American Indians of the Greater Antilles & South America. The Taino, an Arawak subgroup, were the 1st native peoples encountered by Christopher Columbus on Hispaniola. The island Arawak were virtually wiped out by Old World diseases to which they had no immunity. A small number of mainland Arawak survive in South America. Most (more than 15,000) live in Guyana, where they represent about one-third of the Indian population. Smaller groups are found in Suriname, French Guiana, & Venezuela. Their language, also called Arawak, is spoken chiefly by older adults. The Antillean Arawak, or Taino, were agriculturists who lived in villages, some with as many as 3,000 inhabitants, & practiced slash-and-burn cultivation of cassava & corn. They recognized social rank & gave great deference to theocratic chiefs. Religious belief centred on a hierarchy of nature spirits & ancestors, paralleling somewhat the hierarchies of chiefs. Despite their complex social organization, the Antillean Arawak were not given to warfare. They were driven out of the Lesser Antilles by the Caribs shortly before the appearance of the Spanish.  The South American Arawak inhabited northern & western areas of the Amazon basin, where they shared the means of livelihood & social organization of other tribes of the tropical forest. They were sedentary farmers who hunted & fished, lived in small autonomous settlements, & had little hierarchical organization. The Arawak were found as far west as the foothills of the Anes. These Campa Arawak, however, remained isolated from influences of the Andean civilizations.

During the mid-19C, George Catlin created 2 large collections of paintings featuring Indian portraits, genre scenes, & western landscapes. The 1st collection, which he called his "Indian Gallery," included more than 500 works completed during the 1830s. Most of the surviving paintings from this group are now at the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, DC. During the 1850s & 1860s, Catlin created a 2nd collection, numbering more than 600 works, which he called his "Cartoon Collection." The surviving works from this collection were acquired by the American Museum of Natural History in New York in 1912. Paul Mellon purchased more than 300 paintings from the Cartoon Collection when they were deaccessioned. In 1965, he gave 351 works from this collection to the National Gallery of Art.  When Catlin exhibited the Cartoon Collection in New York in 1871, he published a catalog listing all the works.

Native Wars with the US Army - Seminoles 1817-8 & 1835-42 & 1855-8

Seminoles attacking a fort, possibly on the Withlacoochee River, in December 1835 during the Second Seminole War.  Library of Congress, Washington DC

Seminoles, 20 November 1817 - 31 October 1818, 28 December 1835 - 14 August 1842 & 15 December 1855 - May 1858. This conflict began with the massacre of about 50 Americans near an army post in Georgia-climax to a series of raids against American settlements by Seminoles based in Spanish Florida. Brig. Gen. Edmund P. Gaines, Indian commissioner of the area, attempted countermeasures but soon found himself & his force of 600 Regulars confined to Fort Scott (Alabama) by the Seminoles. War Department instructions to Gaines had permitted the pursuit of Indians into Florida but had forbidden interference if the Indians took refuge in Spanish posts. Maj. Gen. Andrew Jackson, who was ordered to take over the operation, chose to interpret Gaines' instructions as sanctioning a full-scale invasion of the Spanish colony. He organized a force of about 7,500 volunteers, militia, subsidized Creeks, & Regulars (4th & 7th Infantry & a battalion of the 4th Artillery), & invaded Florida with part of thin force in the spring of 1818. Jackson destroyed Seminole camps, captured Pensacola (capital of Spanish Florida) & other Spanish strongholds, & executed two British subjects, Alexander Arbuthnot & Robert Ambrister, accused of inciting & arming the Indians. These activities threatened American relations with Great Britain & jeopardized negotiations with Spain pertinent to cession of Florida (Adams-Onis Treaty, 1819). Eventually the British were mollified & a compromise agreement was reached with the Spanish under which American forces were withdrawn from Florida without repudiating the politically popular Jackson. As for the Seminole problem, it was temporarily allayed but by no means solved.

In the Treaties of Payne's Landing (1832) & Fort Gibson (1833) the Seminoles had agreed to give up their lands, but they refused to move out. Following the arrest & release of Osceola, their leader, in 1835 Seminole depredations rapidly increased. These culminated 28 December in the massacre of Capt. Francis L. Dade's detachment of 330 Regulars (elements of the 2d & 4th Artillery & 4th Infantry) enroute from Fort Brooke (Tampa) to Fort King (Ocala)-a disastrous loss for the small, Regular force of 600 men in Florida. Brig. Gen. Duncan L. Clinch, commanding Fort King, took the offensive immediately with 200 men & on 31 December 1835 defeated the Indians on the Withlacoochee River.

The War Department, meanwhile, had ordered Brig. Gen. Winfield Scott, commander of the Eastern Department, to Florida to direct operations against the Seminoles. Most of the hostilities had occurred in General Gaines' Western Department, but the War Department expected impending troubles in Texas to keep Gaines occupied. Nevertheless, Gaines had quickly raised about 1,000 men in New Orleans and, acting on his own authority, embarked for Florida in February 1836. Even after learning of Scott's appointment, Gaines seized supplies collected by Scott at Fort Drane & pressed forward until heavily attacked by Seminoles. He succeeded in extricating his force only with help from Scott's troops. Shortly thereafter Gaines returned to New Orleans.

Completion of preparations for Scott's proposed three-pronged offensive converging on the Withlacoochee were delayed by Gaines' use of Scott's supplies, expiration of volunteer enlistments, & temporary diversion of troops to deal with the Creeks who were then on the warpath in Georgia & Alabama. (See Creek Campaigns.) Before the campaign could get underway, Scott was recalled to Washington to face charges of dilatoriness & of casting slurs on the fighting qualities of volunteers. Beginning in December 1836, Maj. Gen. Thomas S. Jesup carried out a series of small actions against the Seminoles, & in September 1837 Osceola was captured. Colonel Zachary Taylor decisively defeated a sizeable Indian force near Lake Okeechobee in December 1837.

After Taylor's expedition no more large forces were assembled on either side. Numerous small expeditions were carried out chiefly by Regular troops commanded successively by Jesup, Taylor, & Brig. Gen. Walker A. Armistead, & many posts & roads were constructed. Col. William J. Worth finally conceived a plan which consisted of campaigning during the enervating summer seasons with the object of destroying the Indian's crops. This plan was successful in driving a sufficient number of Seminoles from their swampy retreats to permit official termination of the war on 10 May 1842.

During the long & difficult campaign some 5,000 Regulars had been employed (including elements of the 1st, 2d, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, & 8th Infantry) with a loss of nearly 1,500 killed. Nearly 20,000 volunteers also participated in the war which cost some thirty-five million dollars & resulted in the removal of some 3,500 Seminoles to the Indian Territory.

The final campaign against the remnants of the Seminoles in Florida consisted mainly of a series of skirmishes between small, roving Indian bands & the 4th Artillery which was stationed at Fort Brooke.

George Catlin (1796 –1872) Flathead Indians.

George Catlin (1796 –1872) Flathead Indians. 

The Flathead peoples now live on a tract of land south of Flathead Lake, Montana, which they share with the Kootenai tribe.  Native Americans have lived in Montana for more than 14,000 years, based on archaeological findings. The Flathead Native Americans were not just one tribe. The term Flathead was the nickname given by Europeans to any Native Americans who intentionally changed the shape of their heads to a flat, elongated profile. These tribes included the Coast Salish, the Chinooks, the Clatsop, Kathlamet, Killamuck, Winnapa, Cowlitz, Kwalhioquas and the Wahkiakum tribes. The Bitterroot Salish came from the West Coast, whereas the Kootenai lived mostly in the interior of present-day Idaho, Montana, & Canada & left artifacts there from prehistoric time. One group of the Kootenai in the northeast lived mainly on bison hunting. Another group relied primarily on fishing & lived on the rivers & lakes of the mountains in the west. When they moved east, they could not rely on fishing & turned to eating plants & bison.

During the 18C, the Salish & the Kootenai tribes shared gathering & hunting grounds.  Flathead's original territory extended from the crest of the Bitterroot Range to the Continental Divide of the Rocky Mountains & centred on the upper reaches of the Clark Fork of the Columbia River. Although early accounts referred to all Salish-speaking tribes as “Flathead,” most of the people now known by this name never engaged in head flattening.

The Flathead were the easternmost of the Plateau Indians. Like other tribes that regularly traversed the Rocky Mountains, they shared many traits with nomadic Plains Indians. The Flathead acquired horses in great numbers & mounted annual fall expeditions to hunt bison on the Plains, often warring with tribes that were permanent residents of the area. Traditional Flathead culture also emphasized Plains-type warfare including staging war dances, killing enemies, counting coups (touching enemies to shame or insult them), kidnapping women & children, & stealing horses.  Before European colonization, the Flathead usually lived in tepees.  The A-framed mat-covered lodge, a typical Plateau structure, was also used. Western Flathead groups used bark canoes, while eastern groups preferred the round bison-skin vessels known as bullboats that were typical of the Plains.  Traditional Flathead religion centered on Shamanism & guardian spirits, with whom individuals communicated in visions.  A spirit could bring good fortune & health to the person it guarded or disease & misfortune to others.

Tradition relates that the Flathead Native Indians adopted the custom of changing their appearance as they believed it made them look distinct from other Native American tribes. It was believed that the process was painless and did not affect their mental capabilities. It was seen as an act of caring for a new baby and ensuring they were seen as new members of the community in which they lived. It was a sign of status, identification and of prestige. Although the people who made up the groups of Flathead Native Indians were generally peaceful, on the occasions they fought with others it was their practice to take slaves. Flathead slaves were never allowed to adopt the process of changing the appearance of their children.

The custom involved flattening the head by artificial pressure during the infancy of all baby boys and girls.  It was believed that the bones of the head in a little baby are soft and can therefore be pressed out of shape without inflicting any pain. As the child grows older, the bones become harder and cannot be easily altered. The Native Indians who followed this custom made the head a wedge-shaped, from a side view.  The 'Flathead' look was obtained by wrapping the baby's head in a bandage and using a board, which was hinged to the cradle-board, that was brought down upon the baby's forehead. The process began when the baby was about one month old.  The board forced the head to broaden in front and the forehead to slant sharply. After the pressure from the board had been kept on for some months, the shape of the head was changed for life, giving the appearance of a Flathead. The picture shows a Chinook cradle with the flattening board. The heads of the children are released from the bandage between the ages of 10 - 12 months.  The procedure resulted in a head with an elongated, flattened appearance, not more than two inches thick from the upper edge of the forehead, and still thinner above.

Native Wars with the US Army - Creeks, 1813-14 & 1836-37

1805 Unknown Artist Painting of Benjamin Hawkins on his plantation, instructing Muscogee Creek in European technology.

The first of the Creek campaigns constitutes a phase of the War of 1812. The Upper Creeks, siding with the English, sacked Fort Mims in the summer of 1813, massacring more than 500 men, women, & children. These same Indians, grown to a force of about 900 warriors, were decisively beaten at Horseshoe Bend (Alabama) late in March 1814 by Andrew Jackson & his force of about 2,000 Regulars, militia, & volunteers, plus several hundred friendly Indians. 

U.S. troops storm the breastworks at Horseshoe Bend 1814 New York Public Library

In 1832 many Creeks were sent to the Indian Territory, & most of those remaining in the Southeast were removed there in 1836-37 when they went on the warpath during the Second Seminole War.

George Catlin (1796 –1872) Five iquito indians

 George Catlin (1796 –1872) Five Iquito Indians

The Iquito peoples were a very small tribe of Native Americans, reduced by small-pox & disease, & mostly residing in one small village, on the bank of the Amazon, near Nauta. 1853.

During the mid-19C, George Catlin created 2 large collections of paintings featuring Native American portraits, genre scenes, & western landscapes. The first collection, which he called his "Indian Gallery," included more than 500 works completed during the 1830s. Most of the surviving paintings from this group are now at the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, DC. During the 1850s & 1860s, Catlin created a 2nd collection, numbering more than 600 works, which he called his "Cartoon Collection." The surviving works from this collection were acquired by the American Museum of Natural History in New York in 1912. Paul Mellon purchased more than 300 paintings from the Cartoon Collection, when they were deaccessioned. In 1965, he gave 351 works from this collection to the National Gallery of Art.  When Catlin exhibited the Cartoon Collection in New York in 1871, he published a catalog listing all the works. The catalog entries often included additional information about the subject of each painting.

Native Wars with the US Army - Tippecanoe 1811

Tecumseh

In 1804 Tecumseh, a Shawnee, & his medicine man brother, the Prophet, with British backing, began serious efforts to form a new Indian confederacy in the Northwest. Governor William Henry Harrison of the Indiana Territory rejected Tecumseh's demand that settlers be kept out of the region. In the summer of 1811 Harrison, with the approval of the War Department, undertook to break up the confederacy before it could organize a mayor attack against the settlements.

1811 Tenskwatawaw called the Prophet was Tecumseh's brother 

In September 1811 Harrison moved from Vincennes up the Wabash with a well-trained force of 320 Regular infantry & 650 militia. After building Fort Harrison at Terre Haute as an advanced base, Harrison marched with 800 men toward the main Indian village on Tippecanoe Creek, bivouacking in battle order on the north bank of the Wabash within sight of the village on 6 November. Tecumseh being absent, Harrison conferred with the Prophet who gave the impression that he would not attack while a peace proposal was under consideration. Nevertheless, just before dawn on 7 November 1811, the Indians attacked Harrison's forces. In a wild hand-to-hand encounter the Indians were routed & their village destroyed. Harrison lost 39 killed & missing, 151 wounded; the Indians suffered a similar loss. This indecisive victory did not solve the Indian problems in the Northwest. The tribes of the area were to make common cause with the British in the War of 1812.