cavetocanvas:

George Catlin, Shó-me-kós-see, The Wolf, a Chief, 1832

cavetocanvas:

George Catlin, Medicine Man, Performing His Mysteries over a Dying Man, 1832

From the Smithsonian American Art Museum:

In 1832, George Catlin witnessed a dramatic ritual at Fort Union, two thousand miles northwest of St. Louis. According to the artist, the medicine man began the healing by administering roots and herbs. If this failed, he would try “shaking his frightful rattles, and singing songs of incantation.” Catlin wrote that the medicine man’s clothing often consisted of “the skins of snakes, and frogs, and bats,—-beaks and tows and tails of birds,—-hoofs of deer, goats, and antelopes,” each possessing “anomalies or deformities,” which gave them their healing power. This healer wore the skin of a yellow bear attached with the hides of snakes. Catlin actually owned the costume, and he sometimes wore it to enhance the spectacle of his Indian Gallery.

cavetocanvas:

George Catlin, Prairie Meadows Burning, 1832

From the Smithsonian American Art Museum:

George Catlin painted ominous, swirling clouds of black smoke that loom out of the distance and drive the Indians before them. The artist was an eyewitness to such terrifying events, and described the fire’s “thunder rumbling as it goes.” But he also wrote that prairie fires made for “some of the most beautiful scenes that are to be witnessed in this country, and also some of the most sublime.”

missalsfromiram:

The Pyramid of Cahokia, aka Monks Mound, c. 900-1100 AD. Its base is roughly the same area as that of the Great Pyramid of Giza. Across from St. Louis, Missouri.

fairytalesinred:

“[In the background is] Monks Mound, Cahokia. It is 100 feet tall and covers 14 acres. The Emergent Mississippian Period (ca. 800-1000 A.D.) saw a state-level society exploiting the rich agricultural resources of the Great Bottom (Missouri and Mississippi River confluence). Ultimately, the city’s commercial and cultural impact was felt from the Great Lakes to the Gulf Coast, and from Oklahoma to the Atlantic Coast. Cahokia’s rulers governed from a temple atop this mound. Cahokia’s population in 1050-1150 A.D. was likely to have been 10-20,000, much larger than Paris at the time, one of Europe’s major cities. It declined in 1200-1400 A.D.” — Mississippian Civilization (900-1750 A.D.): Cahokia

(Source: metal-in-the-microwave)

zippalu:

Yellow Thunder, Warrior Chief, 120 years old, H.H. Bennett, ‘Among the Winnebego’