Catlin’s Creed

George Catlin:

I love a people who have always made me welcome to the best they had.

I love a people who are honest without laws, who have no jails and no poorhouses.

I love a people who keep the commandments without ever having read them or heard them preached from the pulpit.

I love a people who never swear, who never take the name of God in vain.

I love a people who love their neighbors as they love themselves.

I love a people who worship God without a bible, for I believe that God loves them also.

I love a people whose religion is all the same, and who are free from religious animosities.

I love a people who have never raised a hand against me, or stolen my property, where there was

no law to punish for either.

I love a people who have never fought a battle with white men, except on their own ground.

I love and don’t fear mankind where God has made and left them, for there they are children.

I love a people who live and keep what is their own without locks and keys.

I love all people who do the best they can.

And oh, how I love a people who don’t live for the love of money!

George Catlin (1796-1872) was an American painter, author and traveler who specialized in portraits of Native Americans in the Old West and lived for a long near Native American Tribes.