Letters and Notes on the Manners, Customs and Conditions of North American Indians

This masterpiece was written by George Catlin between the years 1832 and 1839 as a collection of notes, letters and paintings which illustrate his travels throughout North America. His paintings comprised the first record to illustrate the Plains Indians and their homelands to the west of the Mississippi River. It wasn't until Catlin's work that allowed the American colonists of the eastern states to visualize and truly understand the conditions of the Pawnees, the Blackfeet and Crows, the Sioux and even the wild Comanches; learning the ways of native life and their customs. It still holds to this day a great anthropological value and information that brings a modern reader to understand how foreign colonization affected their culture and livelihood. Contains both Volume 1 & volume 2 and includes all Illustrations in Black & White Crows and Blackfeet---General character and appearance - Crow lodge or wigwam - Striking their tents and encampment moving - Mode of dressing and smoking skins - Crows - Beauty of their dresses - Horse-stealing or capturing Different languages, and numbers of the Blackfeet Knisteneaux-Assinneboins, and Ojibbeways - Ojibbeways - Chief and wife - Assinneboins a part of the Sioux - Wi-jun-jon (a chief) and wife - His visit to Washington Mode of depositing the dead on scaffold - Respect to the dead - Visiting the dead - Feeding the dead - Converse with the dead - Bones of the dead Costumes of the Mandans - High value set upon them - Made of war-eagles' quills and ermine - Head-dresses with horns - A Jewish custom - Portrait of Mah-to-toh-pa Polygamy - Reasons and excuses for it - Marriages, how contracted - Wives bought and sold - Paternal and filial affection-Virtue and modesty of women - Early marriages - Slavish lives and occupations of the Indian women - Pomme blanche - Dried meat - Caches - Modes of cooking, and times of eating - Attitudes in eating - Separation of males and females in eating - the Indians moderate eaters - Some exceptions - Curing meat in the sun, without smoke or salt - The wild Indians eat no salt Pohk-hong (the cutting or torturing scene) - Eh-ke-nah-ka-nah-pick (the last race) - Extraordinary instances of cruelty in self-torture - Ioways - Konzas - Mode of shaving the head - Pawnees - Small-pox amongst Pawnees - Major Dougherty's opinion of the Fur Trade - Ottoes, Omahas Fort Gibson, 1st regiment United States dragoons reviewed - Murder of Judge Martin and family Pawnee Picts, Kiowas, and Wicos. Suffering from impure water-sickness of the men - Death of General Leavenworth and Lieutenant M'Clure Kickapoos, portraits of - Weahs, portraits of - Potowatomics - Kaskaslas - Peorias Piankeshaws - Delawares - Moheconneus, or Mohegans - Oneidas - Tuskaroras - Senecas - Iroquois Shawanos - Shawnee prophet and his transactions - Cherokees - Creeks - Choctaws - Ball-play - A distinguished ball-player - Eagle dance - Tradition of the Deluge - Of a future state - Orion of the Crawfish band Coteau des Prairies - Ravages of small-pox - Mackinaw and Sault de St. Marys - Catching white fish - Canoe race - Voyage up the Fox river and down the Ouisconsin in bark canoe - Red Pipe Stone Quarry, on the Coteau des Prairies - Indian traditions relative to the Red Pipe Stone - The Author and his companion stopped by the Sioux, on their way, and objections raised by the Sioux Treaty with the Sacs and Foxes - Stipulations Fort Moultrie - Seminolees - Florida war - Prisoners of war - Osceola - Cloud, King Phillip - Co-ee-ha-jo - Creek Billy, Mickenopah - Death of Osceola - Probable origins of the Indians - Languages - Government - Cruelties and Punishments - Indian queries on white Religion - Picture writing, songs and totems - Policy of removing the indians - Trade and small-pox, the principal destroyers of the indian tribes - Murder of the Root Diggers and Ricarees - Concluding remarks Account of the destruction of the Mandans