Native American Dance & Dancers Posters & Prints

The Bear Dance, Giclee Print

Mandan Bull Dance, Giclee Print

George Catlin
b. 7-26-1796; Wilkes Barre, PA
d. 12-23-1872; New Jersey

George Catlin was an American painter and entrepreneur who dedicated his life to bringing attention to the disappearing Native American culture by painting Indians in their native land that he then displayed in his touring gallery.

On his first journey in 1830 he accompanied William Clark up the Mississippi River; using St. Louis his base of operations, Catlin eventually visited fifty tribes on the western frontier, the south central region, Florida, and the Great Lakes. Catlin also visited South America in the 1850s.

Catlin's original Indian Gallery resides at the Smithsonian.

Edward S. Curtis, photographer of the American West and of Native American peoples, was known to have staged events and manipulated photographs.

The Tolowa tribe live in and near the Smith River basin, their traditional lands, in northwestern California and southwestern Oregon.

The photograph Dancing to Restore an Eclipsed Moon is not available - its caption reads “It is thought that an eclipse is the result of an attempt of some creature in the sky to swallow the luminary. In order to compel the monster to disgorge it, the people dance round a smoldering fire of old clothing and hair, the stench of which, rising to his nostrils, is expected to cause him to sneeze and disgorge the moon.”

Ptihn-Tak-Ochata, Dance of the Mandan Women, Giclee Print

Karl Bodmer
b. 2-6-1809; Zurich, Switzerland
d. 10-30-1893; Paris

Artist Karl Bodmer accompanied German naturalist and explorer Prince Maximilian on his 1832-34 North American Expedition. The Prince used Bodmer's paintings in his book, Travels in the Interior of North America, published in London in 1839. In Europe Bodmer lived in Barbizon, France, known as the home of the Barbizon School of painters who pioneered painting outdoors and are considered pre-Impressionists.

Maria Tallchief
b. 1-24-1925; Fairfax, OK

Maria Tallchief, whose father was a chief of the Osage tribe, studied ballet with Bronislava Nijinska, the sister of Vaslav Nijinsky. She danced with the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo and the New York City Ballet. Tallchief was briefly married to George Balanchine and originated the Sugarplum Fairy in his version of The Nutcracker.

• Native American posters
• Ballet posters
• The Art of Maria Tallchief, DVD