George Catlin, an artist who traveled West during the 1830-1850s, depicted Native Americans and their ways of life in his paintings. He understood that the westward expansion of white people was forcing the Indians to leave their homes and travel even farther out west. Although he had respect for them and their culture, in his painting called “Pigeon’s Egg Head” we can see that he though Native Americans were far too impressionable, they had outlandish tastes and were too easily influenced by the colonials.
Between 1830 and 1850, many changes occurred in the economy of America. The most important by far is the transportation revolution, and the construction of railroads, which allowed the colonials to progress much farther West than they had been able to using only rivers and channels. Since the major rivers, the ones that were used for transportation and trading, were located on the East coast, the colonials limited their expansion to only that part of America. But with the construction of railroads, they were able to go farther out West much faster, and during any time of the year. As this was very convenient for them, many people began going West and forcing the Indians to leave. This is called The Trail of Tears.
Some Indians thought they could prevent removal by "… advocating a program of accommodating by adopting white ways”¹. But this did not always work.
In George Catlin’s painting, “Pigeon’s Egg Head”, we see an Indian chief heading towards Washington, dressed in all of his finery. He stands tall and erect; obviously he is greatly respected among his tribe. He has ornate leggings, a large feather headdress and very intricate details on the rest of his clothes. This man is proud of being Native American; he has not yet been influenced by the ways of the settlers. In the background of the left side of the painting, we can see the Capitol, so we can assume he is going to Washington, and we can predict that some kind of change is going to happen to him.
The right side of the painting seems like it was drawn separately from the first. Even the colors of the sky and grass are darker. But the first thing that draws our attention is the great change that has taken over Pigeon’s Egg Head. He is now dressed as the white people dress, but by trying so hard to be like them, he ended up looking ridiculous, wearing "a full set of regimentals...trimmed with lace gold"². He is wearing an extremely bright and wide sash, he is holding and umbrella, the shoulders of his military jacket are adorned with golden epaulets, he has a bright red tall feather in his hat, he is holding an umbrella and a fan, and he is smoking a cigar. He also has two bottles of alcohol in his pockets. We can also see how different his stance is. It is cocky, arrogant, and it seems as though he is trying to draw attention to himself. Once a proud, respected leader of his tribe, he is now merely a puppet of the colonials, he has lost all of his stature.
This painting shows the influence white people had on Native Americans. No matter what they did, they knew they would never be accepted completely into both cultures. Taking on the colonials’ way of life would have meant estrangement from the other Native Americans, and continuing their Native American way of life would have meant being banished by the white people. Either way, what was happening in the 1830s through the 1850s, namely the Trail of Tears, was bound to happen sometime. It is not possible for such different people to live together in harmony, which is extremely disappointing.
¹ Nation of Nations, page 295;
² “Story of Wi-Jun-Jon”, page 2.
Hello, Anastasia.
Here's some comments for your essay:
Your introduction sentence was good, but it was too long for supporting the body paragraphs. Your thesis statement was too long. Your thesis statement should explain what you will going to talk, not what you have seen, and not only that, you also had some spelling errors. Your first body paragraph was pretty good. You gave some specific examples to those Indians why they headed to city. It was easily understandable, however, the sentence errors were the major issues of your body paragraphs. Your second paragraph had some run-on sentences, and you could have used some advanced language to support and clarify your topic. Your conclusion was pretty good, it reviews how Native Americans influence their own society by go to the white man's settlement. You could have write more if you had more references.
Posted by: Heewon Choi | November 08, 2006 at 07:39 PM