Running With Buffalos

The painting is by George Catlin from 1832 and is titled Hunting Buffalo Camouflaged with Wolf Skins. It shows one of the traits that the natives were praised for in many accounts: Hunting. I think the painting encapsulates so many characteristics of the natives as a people, which I think Catlin was trying to put forward to the settlers and many others outside America who would see his paintings. The painting displays their remarkable athleticism, physical strength and intelligence involved in executing their hunts.
This hunting method that Catlin captured not only highlights the obvious physical abundance the natives possessed, but also the abundance and wealth of their culture/ customs. The painting demands respect and offers a smart way of looking at the Native Americans. The barbaric nature that is sometimes familiarised with them, is put aside and shows the craft, skill and elegance of the ways of Native American men. There is a simple but yet ingenious understanding that the natives held over their environment and its inhabitants, that is depicted so well by Catlin. The painting almost echoes  People of the Land.
And in a way, for me, there is some kind of peaceful spirituality in the way the Natives are hunting the buffalos, in comparison to the slaughter of millions of herds by the settlers.