Customer Reviews

Native Americans: A Portrait : The Art and Travels of Charles Bird King, George Catlin, and Karl Bodmer

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This is a unique snapshot view of the American Indians between 1820 - 1840 provided by fine portraits of their leaders, the life they lived and text describing their problems with the ever increasing number of white settlers who occupied their land. For anyone who is interested in an authentic snapshot of the life of these people, this book is highly recommended.

This "coffee table"-size book is a collection of leading Native Americans just prior to the complete disruption of the lives and cultures of America's original peoples. The (mostly) men are dressed in their finest, as people do when having their portraits painted. Very important is the "revelation" that not all "Indians" dressed in the buckskins and feathered headdresses of the more popular Plains tribesmen of the movies. The Creek, for example, dressed in cotton tunics, leggings and turbans.

The artists -- the best of their era --did not mix art with politics. It mattered not that some of the men had been labeled as heroes, villains, chiefs, etc. by whites (depending on what they had read or experienced).

The paintings are large, colorful and arresting. Many of the originals were lost in a fire, and many originals and copies are in private homes or collections with restricted access. Thanks to those who compiled this marvelous book, anyone can see and admire much of which has been lost forever.