Connibos Starting for Wild Horses 1854 - 1869

George Catlin made this painting, “Connibos Starting for Wild Horses,” during a period of westward expansion in America. Catlin, who romanticized Indigenous life, traveled through the American West in the 1830s, painting scenes of the people and landscapes he encountered. Here, we see a hunting party, perhaps of the Pawnee tribe, setting out to capture wild horses. The painting romanticizes the relationship between the hunters, their horses, and the vast, open land. Yet, it also carries a complex history. Catlin's work was made even as government policies sought to displace and assimilate Native American tribes. He witnessed first-hand the impact of these policies on Indigenous communities. Catlin believed he was preserving a disappearing way of life through his art, though his representations were often filtered through his own cultural lens. He once said his goal was to rescue from oblivion the looks and customs of the vanishing races of native men in America. This painting, while seemingly a celebration, also speaks to the painful transformations and erasures of this period.