http://americanart.si.edu/exhibitions/online/catlin/catlin_highlights2.cfm?StartRow=4

This is an image of Little Chief who was a member of the Western Tribe. However this image does not suggest that he is part of a Native Indian Tribe. He has on a blazer smart, clean white shirt and a cravat, suggesting that he is of a high affluent power. The cleanliness of him with his smart clean outfit combed slick hair and over all neat appearance does not suggest that he lives with a tribe in the ‘wilderness’, it actually suggest the opposite. It shows that he may belong to a cavalry and have great power. There is a link within this picture to his Indian Heritage. In his hands he is holding a very decorative pipe. This was very often what Indians had and usually chiefs of tribes. The pip shows that he within his Native life is of a high power. The pipe I believe is very significant within this picture it shows by the clothes and the neatness of his hair and overall appearance that he is not an Indian, which is what the easterners wanted ( the elimination of native Indians) for them to be like them. But the pipe shows that although they have changed his overall appearance they will never be able to change his heritage. The roots of his past and family. These elements of the past are what makes him who he is and these clothes and neat appearance are just a costume to cover whom he really is, to give the impression and image to the outsiders eye that he is really a proper gentleman.