George Catlin's great innovation was in rendering his subjects in situ, unlike previous artists who usually painted the Indians' portraits during their Eastern visits. In the spring of 1830, Catlin departed for St. Louis, Missouri. Over the next 6 years, he made several western excursions, including a widely reported 1832 journey up the Missouri aboard the American Fur Company's steamboat Yellow Stone on her maiden voyage to Fort Union, North Dakota.
In the untamed West, animal attacks were a constant threat to the K'nisteneux Indians, & Catlin wrote: "The Grizzly Bear is the terror (the monster) of the North American great plains & Rocky Mountains; the most powerful & the most dangerous to human as well as to animal life; often as heavy as an ordinary ox, & with a brutal ferocity that lacks caution or fear, & an imperious rush upon every living thing that it meets. A couple of these huge creatures had been discovered within a few miles of the fur companie's Fort, at the mouth of Yellow Stone River, whilst the author was there, in 1832. A large party of K'nisteneux Indians being encamped around the fort at the time, some five or six of their best lancers mounted their horses & started for them, & the author in company. There was no manourvering necessary in approaching them, for the moment that they discovered the party approaching, they came at full gallop upon them. The attack was mutual, & the rencontre terrible. The expertness of the lancers, one making the feint whist another gave the blow, succeeded, after a furious struggle. The male, the strongest of the two, fell from a blow of the war club, & its skin is now in the author's collection; The female, with several severe wounds, seeing her companion fall, escaped pursuit by crossing the Missouri river."
