In North American Indians Catlin combined three different yet representative images as an introductory plate in a portfolio that otherwise involved hunting scenes and other aspects of Indian life. As Catlin explained: "The group in Plate 1 is composed of three Portraits from my Collection, representing three different tribes of various latitudes, and well illustrating a number of the leading characteristics of this interesting part of the human family." This explains why the three figures do not relate in posture or expression to one another, nor does the woman seem to relate in scale to the two male figures.

In the portfolio Catlin describes (from left to right) the three figures and their costumes in considerable detail:

An Osage warrior, from a southern latitude, entirely primitive in his habits and dress; his head shaved, and ornamented with the graceful crest manufactured from the hair of the deer's tail and horsehair (a uniform custom of the tribe), his robe of the buffalo's hide, with the battles of his life emblazoned on it; his necklace made of the claws of the grizzly bear; his bow and quiver slung upon his back; and his leggins fringed with scalp-locks taken as trophies from the heads of enemies slain by him in battle.

An Iroquois (an almost extinguished tribe), from a northern climate, with long hair; with a ring in his nose, and headdress of quills and feathers, according to the mode of his tribe; with his tomahawk in hand, and his dress mostly of civilized manufacture, indicating an approach to civilization, to which all the remnants of this and several other contiguous tribes  have long since attained.

A Pawnee Woman, from an intermediate latitude, in primitive dress, made entirely of skins; and in this as well as in the mode of dressing the head and ornamenting the person, a very fair illustration of the general modes and personal
appearance of the females who exhibit, much less forcibly than the men, the characteristic differences of the various tribes.