This Week in the West: George Catlin, the Artist Driven to Capture Native Culture

This Week in the West · Dec 22, 2025 · 4m

🤠This Week in the West

🎙️ Episode 60: George Catlin, the Artist Driven to Capture Native Culture

📢 Episode Summary:

This episode of This Week in The West reflects on the life and legacy of George Catlin, who died on December 23, 1872. Driven by an obsessive sense of urgency, Catlin dedicated his life to documenting Native American tribes at a moment when disease, westward expansion, and U.S. government policy were rapidly transforming—and often destroying—Indigenous cultures. His hundreds of paintings form one of the most significant visual records of Native life before forced removal and…