Comanche Warrior Lancing an Osage, at Full Speed

George Catlin’s descriptions of Native Americans reveal his respect for the tribes and nations that he feared would soon vanish. “Every one of these red sons of the forest (or rather of the prairie) is a knight and lord,” he wrote, the only things which he deems worthy of his exertions are to mount his snorting steed, with his bow and quiver slung, his arrow-shield upon his arm, and his long lance glistening in the war-parade . . .” (Catlin, Letters and Notes , vol. 1, no. 4, 1841, reprint 1973; Truettner, The Natural Man Observed , 1979)