American Art Collaborative

According to George Catlin, Mad Buffalo, a member of the Osage tribe, “was tried and convicted for the murder of two white men during Adams's administration, and was afterwards pardoned, and still lives, though in disgrace in his tribe, as one whose life has been forfeited.” Catlin painted this portrait at Fort Gibson (in present-day Oklahoma) in 1834. (Catlin, Letters and Notes, vol. 2, no. 38, 1841; reprint 1973