In Conversation: Catlin’s ‘Vanishing Indians’ and the politics of Indian agency, National Portrait Gallery, May 9 2013, 7pm.
Next Thursday (9th May) Jacqueline Fear-Segal and Rebecca Tillett will be representing AMS and the Native Studies Research Network at the National Portrait Gallery in London. Along with David Stirrup (University of Kent), they will be discussing the historical and political context of George Catlin’s ‘Indian Gallery’ to coincide with the NPG’s George Catlin: American Indian Portraits season of events.
Free and open to the public, the event will explore Catlin’s portraits alongside the responses of 19th century Native American intellectuals. Jacqueline , Rebecca and David will also address the way in which the Smithsonian has used Catlin’s imagery to establish the narrative of the vanishing Indian, as well as the way in which contemporary Native Americans such as Pequot preacher William Apess or Ojibwe interpreter Maungwudaus have attempted to subtly challenge and subvert these romantic and racist stereotypes in popular culture.