Ee-tów-o-kaum, Both Sides of the River, Chief of the Tribe

George Catlin, Ee-tów-o-kaum, Both Sides of the River, Chief of the Tribe, 1836, oil on canvas, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Mrs. Joseph Harrison, Jr., 1985.66.272
Copied George Catlin, Ee-tów-o-kaum, Both Sides of the River, Chief of the Tribe, 1836, oil on canvas, 29 x 24 in. (73.7 x 60.9 cm), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Mrs. Joseph Harrison, Jr., 1985.66.272
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Artwork Details

Title
Ee-tów-o-kaum, Both Sides of the River, Chief of the Tribe
Artist
Date
1836
Location
Not on view
Dimensions
29 x 24 in. (73.7 x 60.9 cm)
Credit Line
Gift of Mrs. Joseph Harrison, Jr.
Mediums
Mediums Description
oil on canvas
Classifications
Subjects
  • Portrait male — Both Sides of the River
  • Indian — Stockbridge
  • Indian — Mahican
Object Number
1985.66.272
Linked Open Data
https://edan.si.edu/saam/id/object/1985.66.272

Artwork Description

George Catlin probably painted Ee-tów-o-kaum, chief of the Mahican tribe, at Green Bay (in today’s Wisconsin) in 1836. In Letters and Notes, his extensive writings on his travels and visits to Native American tribes across the West, Catlin described the Mahican as a “once powerful and still famous tribe, residing . . . in the territory of Wisconsin,” where they settled after leaving New York in 1833. He painted the chief at “full length, with a psalm-book in one hand, and a cane in the other . . . [he] is a very shrewd and intelligent man, and a professed, and I think, sincere Christian.” (Catlin, Letters and Notes, vol. 2, no. 47, 1841, reprint 1973; Truettner, The Natural Man Observed, 1979)