an Gallery and Pohl suggests that audiences "would have been more interested in the [actual appearance] of Mah-To-Toh-Pa and Mandan culture in general" than in Catlin (155). But surely works such as the final portrait of the Chief, which Pohl mentions, the 1823 portrait of the Osage Chief Clermont and The Last Race, Part of Okipa Ceremony (1832), both featured by Pohl, would have made up the bulk of Catlin's show? In this context Catlin's representation of himself would serve the same function as a book's frontispiece. In ignoring this aspect of the painting Pohl overlooks the ways in which it continues (and expands) Catlin's contribution to the generalized view of Native Americans held by Americans in the East.
Catlin may also have needed to present a picture of himself among the Indians because the show was being presented long after the time of the visits to the West when he had gathered his material. This might explain why he chose this particular composition for inclusion in the Gallery. But the painting may also have served as an orientat
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