George Catlin devoted his artistic career to painting Native Americans' portraits, collecting their artifacts, and recording their traditions and ceremonies. He believed that Native American cultures would soon become extinct, and he conceived of his art a memorial to Native peoples.

He made this portrait of Corn, a Miniconjou Sioux warrior, at Fort Pierre, an outpost on the Missouri River northwest of Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. His depiction emphasizes his subject's strong facial structure. Catlin worked in the classical and European tradition of heroic painting, using its conventions to pay tribute to Native Americans.

Courtesy of the National Museum of American Art, gift of Mrs. Joseph Harrison, Jr.