Two Sioux Chiefs, a Medicine Man, and a Woman with a Child 1861 - 1869

George Catlin made this painting of two Sioux Chiefs, a medicine man and a woman with a child, with oil on canvas, sometime in the 19th century. Catlin, like many artists of his time, was drawn to the American West, which he regarded as a sort of pre-industrial paradise of noble savages. But this idealization took place against the backdrop of the brutal history of settler colonialism. Catlin's images provided a ready visual vocabulary for understanding the continent's indigenous population in a way that reinforced a narrative of white, European, entitlement. He painted this image to document what he saw, but his vision was inevitably shaped by his cultural background and the prevailing attitudes of his time. The medicine man with his feathered regalia is given the greatest prominence, marking him out as an exotic figure. The subjects are neatly arranged to be easily viewed, like specimens in a display case. Historians have found many ways to complicate Catlin's legacy, using anthropology, critical race theory and archival sources to create a more nuanced account of the colonial history of the American West.