Existing comment:
Native America
Humboldt believed that a just society demonstrated to respect for all cultures. Five years in the Americas had taught him that local inhabitants often knew more about an environment than government officials. As a result, when Humboldt sought to understand the landscapes through which he traveled, he often relied on indigenous guides. These relationships provided him with greater access to different cultures. Trained at Göttingen by Johann Friedrich Blumenbach to believe that all races were essentially equal, Humboldt used his clout to urge American politicians and explorers to follow his lead. In his view, the information exchanged during encounters with native people enhanced global knowledge of the earth and encouraged mutual respect among its peoples.
He had hoped the United States would adopt a similar approach to is relationships with native communities. He was horrified by President Andrew Jackson's Indian Removal Act of 1830, which broke existing treaties and forced the relocation of entire communities to make way for white settlements. Two people who became close to Humboldt responded to concern for the survival of native communities along the Missouri River.
One was self-taught artist and amateur ethnographer George Catlin; the other was professionally trained Prussian naturalist and cultural anthropologist Prince Maximilian zu Wied-Neuwied. In 1832 Catlin made his first extended trip upriver from St. Louis to study native communities. He returned with more than one hundred paintings: portraits, genre scenes, and landscapes that would form the foundation of his artistic career. Inspired by Humboldt, in 1833 "Prince Max," accompanied by Swiss artist Karl Bodmer, traveled much the same route to study the same tribes with the assistance of many of the same people, notably Territorial Governor William Clark and the Mandan (Nųmą́khų́·ki) chief Mató-Tópe. |