"In the Dead of the Winters . . ."

Artist George Catlin's observations of Plains Indian life in the nineteenth century remind us of the comforts of a warm fireplace on a bitterly cold winter day.

"In the dead of the winters, which are very long and severely cold in this country, where horses cannot be brought into the chase with any avail, the Indian runs upon the surface of the snow by the aid of his snow shoes, which buoy him up, while the great weight of the buffaloes, sinks them down to the middle of their sides, and completely stopping their progress, ensures them certain and easy victims to the bow or lance of their pursuers . . . This is the season in which the greatest number of these animals are destroyed for their robes—they are most easily killed at this time, and their hair or fur being longer and more abundant, gives greater value to the robe."

From George Catlin, Letters and Notes on the Manners, Customs, and Condition of the North American Indians, London, 1848, vol.1, p. 253, pl. 109.

In an interesting footnote, Smithsonian anthropologist John C. Ewers points out that the Indians are wading through the snow in summer war dress because Catlin had never seen a winter buffalo hunt on the Great Plains.

Source: William H. Truettner. The Natural Man Observed: A Study of Catlin's Indian Gallery (Washington, D.C.: The Smithsonian Institution Press in cooperation with the Amon Carter Museum and The National Collection of Fine Arts, 1979).

Pictured: George Catlin (1796–1872), Buffalo Chase in Winter, Indians on Snowshoes,1832–33, oil, 24 x 29 in., Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Mrs. Joseph Harrison, Jr..