Three Micmac Indians 1861 - 1869

George Catlin created this painting, Three Micmac Indians, using watercolor and graphite. Catlin’s project was to picture Indigenous peoples of the Americas in what he imagined to be their pure, pre-contact state. Paintings like this emerged in the context of settler expansion. During the 19th century, US government policy promoted the removal and displacement of Native Americans from their ancestral lands. Catlin’s paintings appealed to a public interested in the “vanishing race” of Native Americans, romanticizing their appearance and customs. Consider the institutional backdrop: Catlin toured his "Indian Gallery" to paying audiences, exhibiting hundreds of portraits and scenes he created on his travels. Such entrepreneurial endeavors helped to shape popular perceptions and justify expansionist policies. To fully grasp Catlin’s work, historians consult not just the paintings themselves, but also period documents, anthropological studies, and of course the perspectives of the Indigenous communities he depicted. These are invaluable in unveiling the complex social forces at play and understanding how art can reflect, reinforce, or challenge the status quo.