Pah-te-cóo-saw, Straight Man, Semicivilized
1830
George Catlin hit the road in the 1830s, traveling the American frontier to paint Native American people before their way of life was forever altered by westward expansion. In this striking portrait, Pah-te-cóo-saw, a Ho-Chunk man, wears a colorful turban and traditional face paint, placing his hand over his heart in a gesture of sincerity. Catlin painted hundreds of these portraits to preserve what he called a 'vanishing race,' creating a massive visual record that is both historically valuable and deeply complex today. His entire 'Indian Gallery' was eventually donated to the Smithsonian, where it remains a fascinating, if complicated, window into 19th-century America.
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