The colonization of the world by European powers led to the production of a wealth of images of the colonized cultures and peoples. Images of North American Indians play an important role in our visual culture. This publication
illuminates how they are represented, as well as their political and historico-cultural background, based on the so-called 'Indian Museum' of the Dresden sculptor Ferdinand Pettrich (1798-1872). In the 1830s, Pettrich traveled to Washington and portrayed representatives of Indian tribes in 33 reliefs, statues, busts and bozzetti made of terracotta-colored plaster. These tribes were negotiating treaties with the US government about the future usage of the land.
