Tul-lock-chísh-ko, Drinks the Juice of the Stone, in Ball-player's Dress

About this artwork

“The most distinguished ball-player of the Choctaw nation, represented in his ball-play dress, with his ball-sticks in his hands. In every ball-play of these people, it is a rule of the play, that no man shall wear moccasins on his feet, or any other dress than his breech-cloth around his waist, with a beautiful bead belt, and a ‘tail,’ made of white horsehair or quills, and a ‘mane’ on the neck, of horsehair dyed of various colors.” George Catlin executed this work at Fort Gibson, Arkansas Terr...

Art Historical Context

George Catlin's *Tul-lock-chísh-ko, Drinks the Juice of the Stone, in Ball-player's Dress* (1834) captures a prominent Choctaw athlete poised in full regalia for the tribe's intense stickball game, a precursor to modern lacrosse. Painted on-site at Fort Gibson in Arkansas Territory, this full-length portrait exemplifies Catlin's pioneering mission to document Native American cultures through realistic, ethnographic paintings before rapid assimilation and displacement altered them forever. As part of his vast Indian Gallery collection, it reflects the Romantic era's fascination with indigenous ...

About the Artist

George Catlin · 1796–1872

George Catlin (1796–1872), born in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, to Putnam Catlin and Polly Sutton—who had been captured by Native Americans during the 1778 Battle of Wyoming—initially pursued a legal career. Trained at Litchfield Law School, he was admitted to the bar in 1819 but abandoned law after two years to study art in Philadelphia in 1823. Self-taught as a portraitist, Catlin quickly gained ...