K. M'KENZIE, of the Am. Fur Co., Mouth of Yellow Stone.
We hereby certify that the portraits of Seminoles and Euchees, named in this catalogue, were painted by George Catlin, from the life, at Fort Moultrie; that the Indians sat or stood in the costumes precisely in which they are painted, and that the likenesses are remarkably good.
P. MORRISON, Capt. 4th Inft. J. S. HATHAWAY, 2nd Lieut. 1st Art. H. WHARTON, 2nd Lieut. 6th Inft. F. WEEDON, Assistant-Surgeon.
In addition to the above certificates, nearly every portrait has inseparably attached to its back an _individual_ certificate, signed by Indian agents, officers of the army, or other persons, who were present when the picture was painted. The form of these certificates is as follows:--
No. 131, BLACKFOOT, PE-TOH-PE-KISS (THE EAGLE-RIBS).
I hereby certify that this portrait was painted from the life, at Fort Union, mouth of Yellow Stone, in the year 1832, by George Catlin, and that the Indian sat in the costume in which it is painted.
JOHN F. A. SANFORD, United States Indian Agent.
_Légation des Etats Unis, Paris, Dec. 8, 1841._
No man can appreciate better than myself the admirable fidelity of your drawings and book which I have lately received. They are equally spirited and accurate--they are true to nature. Things that _are_ are not sacrificed, as they too often are by the painter, to things as in his judgment they should be.
During eighteen years of my life I was Superintendent of Indian Affairs in the north-western territory of the United States; and during more than five I was Secretary of War, to which department belongs the general control of Indian concerns. I know the Indians thoroughly--I have spent many a month in their camps, council-houses, villages, and hunting-grounds--I have fought with them and against them--and I have negotiated seventeen treaties of peace or of cession with them. I mention these circumstances to show you that I have a good right to speak confidently upon the subject of your drawings. Among them I recognise many of my old acquaintances, and everywhere I am struck with the vivid representations of them and their customs, of their peculiar features, and of their costumes. Unfortunately they are receding before the advancing tide of our population, and are probably destined, at no distant day, wholly to disappear; but your collection will preserve them, as far as human art can do, and will form the most perfect monument of an extinguished race that the world has ever seen.