Paul Kane's Journal of his Western Travels, 1846-1848 - History and ...

I
rite this part of my jurnal over a biasing fire on the shore of Lake Winapeg whare
I have campt for the night," records Paul Kane on June 11, 1846. The first
professional artist to travel the northern fur-trade route from the Great Lakes to the
Pacific Ocean, Kane endured almost unbelievable hardships, experienced
extraordinary adventures, and witnessed astounding scenery. He also painted some
remarkably telling portraits of the Native Americans he encountered and whose
respect he earned.
For two years, through snow and ice, rocks and rapids, searing heat and soaking
rains, Paul Kane managed to keep ajournal. It survived, along with many of his
sketches, in the artist's family and is now one of the treasures of the Stark Museum of
Art, Orange, Texas. Those readers who know Kane through the book Wanderings of
an Artist (1859) will find that his actual journal, which is being published here for the
first time and in its original form, differs significantly from Wanderings in many
respects. What appears in the following pages is entirely Kane's own story, a vivid
eyewitness account, reproduced as exactly as possible to the way he wrote it, line for
line, eccentric spellings and all.
The artist tells his experiences with humanity, simplicity, and humor. Some
passages, in their frighteningly real descriptions of the extreme cold, bring to mind
thoughts of Jack London. Other sections remind one of Mark Twain. On July 14,
1847, Kane writes: "left at 5 this morning for the river Nepersey and arrived at 12 a
distance of30 m. no water all day. a good plase for a persion with the Hidrofoba this."
On November 18, a day after having fallen through ice and nearly drowning in the
strong current, the artist discovers that his dog has gnawed its cord and deserted him
in the night. Kane remarks wryly, with a sentiment we all know well, '"missfortians
never com single."
Just as Paul Kane's journey took him back and forth over the boundary of what
was to become the United States and Canada, so, too, has this special issue of THE
AMERICAN ART JOURNAL crossed international borders. It was at the 1987 meeting of
the American Studies Association, held in New York, the first joint conference with
the Canadian Association for American Studies, that I met Ian MacLaren of
Edmonton, Alberta, and learned of his fascinating work on Paul Kane, an artist of just
as much interest to Americans as he is to Canadians. Once upon a time, before the
great interior of the continent had been mapped and the dotted lines had been put
down, Native Americans could pursue their lives relatively unencumbered by
artificial boundaries. Now, at long last, such lines on a chart and the obstacles they
have created are less and less of an impediment to those who study and publish the
culture of North America.
We are deeply grateful to Nelda C. Stark for kindly granting permission to
publish Paul Kane's journal in its entirety and to the staff of the Stark Museum of Art
for their extraordinary help and cooperation, so cheerfully given.
J. T.