In this illustrated lecture Missoula photographer Lee Silliman will illuminate the life of the first Euro-American artist to ascend the Missouri River as far as Fort Union, Montana. In the 1830s Catlin dedicated his energies to fixing on canvas the lifeways and portraits of the "vanishing races" who resided on the Northern Plains. The evolution of his ideals, as Catlin struggled to convince his fellow countrymen and Europeans that Native American culture was worth honoring and protecting, is a poignant story of triumph and failure.