Ball Play
Ball Play
Artist
George Catlin
(1796 - 1872)
Date1844
MediumHand-colored lithograph mounted on cardboard
ClassificationsPrint
Credit LineCrystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas, 2010.96.23
Accession number
2010.96.23
On View
Not on viewLabel TextIn 1834, Catlin witnessed the Choctaw's ball-play-a form of lacrosse-in Indian Territory, near present-day Oklahoma. The artist related that the game often involved as many as a thousand players, "with five or six times that number of spectators" betting on the outcome of the match. Known to the Choctaw as "little brother of war," the intensely physical, even violent, sport included scratching and wrestling as players struggled desperately for the ball.
