Subject: warrior-raider
Setting: American Southwest mid-late 19thc
* Amon Carter Museum
"George Catlin (1796-1872)
Archery of the Apaches, ca. 1855 Oil on paper mounted to paperboard ...
For twenty years, George Catlin traveled among the Indians; his earliest travels took him through the northern plains and into the Southwest. But in 1854-1855, he traveled west of the Rocky Mountains to record the native peoples in that still little-known region. This lively scene resulted from that trip. Here, Apache men on horseback put on a rousing display of their superb archery skills as Catlin, the Apache chief, and villagers look on. The mounted archers, their horses at full gallop, shoot their arrows into bull's-eye targets that partially encircle the spectators. Catlin noted of this display that 'excellency in archery with mounted Indians consists in the rapidity with which the arrows can be put upon the string and got off, and the accuracy of aim, whilst their horses are at full speed -- for in this way their enemies and their game are killed.'"
