Map of Indian Localities in 1833, from Letters and Notes on the Manners, Customs, and...

George Catlin, a Pennsylvanian lawyer turned painter, spent six years traveling, drawing, painting, and writing about the Plains Indians, visiting 50 tribes living west of the Mississippi River from 1830 to 1836. He spent the rest of his life gathering support for congressional acquisition of his documentary materials, a prospective sale strongly supported by the Smithsonian Institution but ultimately rejected by the American government. Between 1841 and 1842, at his own expense, Catlin wrote and published Letters and Notes on the Manners, Customs, and Condition of the North American Indian, which included this color map depicting Indian localities in 1833.