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Documentary, American Experience - S01 E13 - Views of a Vanishing Frontier (December 27, 1988)
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00:00Indians, of course, always had a history, nobody knows how long, maybe 40, 50,000 years or longer,
00:18but ours was an oral history, words, and over a period of time on the prairie, they became
00:27faded and lost in the wind.
00:35When I was a young man about 40-some years ago in starting a school near the reservation,
00:43the material that was taught to us in school included the national heroes, George Washington,
00:51Thomas Jefferson, and all the rest. But they never included any American Indians. And on reservations at
01:00that time, there was no sense of knowledge about our own people. It seemed like we came from nowhere,
01:09we were nowhere, and there was nowhere to go in the future. So those of us fortunate enough to reach
01:16adulthood, some of us made it to college. And while we were in college, we began to research our tribes.
01:25One of the most marvelous things that I still love to this very day are the works of Carl Bodmer and Prince
01:35Maximilian Zuveed, who came up the river in the early 1830s, recording the things they saw, both visually
01:46and by the prairie and by the written word.
01:50They recorded life of all the prairie peoples up here.
01:54This was the earliest view, the earliest window to the past.
01:58And this is the first time we could actually see them face to face.
02:03So suddenly, we found that we did have a past. We had a tremendous past. Here, these people were our George Washington,
02:17our Thomas Jefferson, and more. They were from the land. They were from here.
02:221833 on the upper Missouri. A middle-aged German nobleman and a young Swiss artist are at the last trading outpost in hostile Indian territory.
02:37An American fur company clerk wrote about them in this way.
02:41In this year, an interesting character in the person of Prince Maximilian from Koblenz on the Rhine made his first appearance on the upper Missouri.
02:50He was accompanied by an artist named Bodmer and a manservant, Drydoppel.
02:55The prince was a man of medium height, rather slender, sans teeth, and speaking very broken English.
03:00His favorite dress was a slouch hat, a black velvet coat, rather rusty from long service, and the greasiest pair of trousers that ever encased princely legs.
03:10The prince was a man of science, and it was in this capacity that he had roamed so far from his ancestral home on the Rhine.
03:18The chiefs of the Minotaries came on board for a short time, and with them the Blackfoot Kiyasaks in his best dress.
03:27He was to make the voyage with us. The friends and relations of Kiyasaks followed the vessel longer than any of the others.
03:35They frequently called to him, to which Kiyasaks answered with a long wooden pipe upon which he played a monotonous and mournful tune.
03:48Silence reigned in these solitudes. The wind was hushed, and only the dashing and foaming of our steamboat interrupted the awful repose.
03:59Silence reigned in these solitudes.
04:11These paintings were made by the Swiss artist Carl Bodmer as a visual record of a scientific
04:30expedition to the headwaters of the Missouri River during the years 1832 and 33.
04:37The descriptions of the Indians and landscape of the American frontier are taken from field
04:42notes written by Prince Maximilian Zuvide.
04:47Prince Maximilian was a German aristocrat.
04:49His great passion was science, in particular the studies of native cultures and natural
04:55history.
04:56As a young man he studied with one of the founders of the discipline of physical anthropology
05:01and came to believe that a people must be examined within the framework of their culture and their
05:07natural environment to be fully understood.
05:11With this background, Prince Maximilian undertook his first expedition to study and write about
05:16the cultures of the Indian tribes of the jungles of Brazil.
05:21The prince who was middle-aged by the time he began planning his second expedition wrote
05:26to a friend,
05:27I think the interior regions of the Missouri would be highly interesting because of its
05:38native tribes.
05:39Then I would want to bring along a draftsman who would not be too much of a burden on my
05:44pocketbook.
05:45He must be a landscape painter but also able to depict figures correctly and accurately, especially
05:52the Indians.
05:53Bodmer's experience was as an engraver of scenes of the Rhine, the tourists' postcards of the
06:00time.
06:01Bodmer had never seen an Indian and probably had almost no experience in portrait and figure
06:07work.
06:08But despite this deficiency in his training, the prince was undeterred and a salary was
06:13agreed upon.
06:17In May of 1832, Maximilian and Bodmer, accompanied by the prince's family retainer and taxidermist,
06:23Dry Doppel, set sail for America.
06:27The Janus arrived in Boston Harbor on the 4th of July, Independence Day, 1832.
06:36Because of the celebration, the entire population seemed to throng the streets and the gay crowd
06:41was very interesting.
06:43But the stranger looks in vain for the original American race of the Indians.
06:50I searched all the booksellers for good representations of that interesting race.
06:57But how much was I astonished that I could not find in all the towns of this country one
07:02good that is characteristic representation of them.
07:07It is incredible how much the original American race is hated and neglected by the foreign
07:12usurpers.
07:17Passing through New York and Philadelphia, Maximilian, Bodmer, and Dry Doppel, traveling by stagecoach,
07:23horseback, and riverboat, began their journey to St. Louis and then to the upper reaches of
07:28the Missouri River.
07:34They traveled through Pennsylvania and Ohio, collecting botanical specimens and sketching
07:39the countryside.
07:40Bodmer and Maximilian were to spend several months in New Harmony, Indiana, partly as a result
07:46of Maximilian taking ill with what he called a serious indisposition nearly resembling cholera.
07:53However, a major part of his decision to remain in the picturesque town was to gain more information
07:59for their travels in the western territories.
08:02New Harmony was a center for the study of natural history, home to a group of world-renowned scientists
08:09and explorers, and it had therefore become the informal training school for the western frontier.
08:18During the first weeks of the new year, 1833, while Maximilian continued to recuperate, Bodmer
08:24traveled down the Ohio to the Mississippi, then down that broad river on the steamboat Homer.
08:31The trip was uneventful, with time for sketches of the river and its many boats.
09:00It was on this trip to New Orleans that Bodmer saw the first Native Americans since coming
09:04to North America, whom he described to Maximilian as living in a sadly inactive condition.
09:11These are Choctaws, a once powerful nation before their land in Mississippi and Alabama was confiscated,
09:17and they were moved west by the U.S. government.
09:20During this period of American history, five of the southern Indian tribes were driven from
09:25their land by President Jackson's resettlement policies.
09:35Bodmer's paintings of Native Americans will change dramatically as he travels to the upper
09:39Missouri and meets the tribes who then still retained their land in traditional cultures.
09:44Karl Bodmer is now regarded as one of the finest draftsmen that ever traveled on the American frontier.
09:54It's of interest to realize, I think, that at the time that he came, he was only 23 years
09:59of age, he'd had very little actual experience.
10:05As a portraitist, as a scientific illustrator, most of his work had been confined to landscape.
10:14Some later historians have tried to account for his North American studies, his portraits
10:20and landscapes in terms of their excellence.
10:24I sometimes think of it in terms of just talent, just native ability.
10:29Also the fact that he spent almost two years in North America sketching every day, drawing
10:35something every day, that's bound to increase your skill with the medium.
10:42He produced about 400, really a little over 400 watercolors and drawings relating to his travels
10:49in North America.
10:51Less than 100 of these formed the basis of a series of 81 engravings with aquatint that
10:58were issued in the form of an atlas or picture book or plate book to supplement the publication
11:05of Maximilian's Travels in North America.
11:09In producing these images, Bodmer relied heavily on his field studies and I think also had advice
11:15from some of his engravers and certainly the publisher.
11:18In the case of group scenes, however, Bodmer would take a woman from this sketch and a man from that sketch
11:26and various figures that he would bring together in a composite grouping and a more dramatic arrangement,
11:35such as in his scalp dance.
11:45The judgment of today's historians is still out on Bodmer.
11:50Some can't quite make him out and can't quite decide whether this was the best of his work that he ever did when he was in North America,
12:00whether it had a great influence on his later life or just what.
12:03But the fact remains that he produced a marvelous visual documentary of those two years in North America.
12:09The aquatints are highly finished works of the engraver's art, while the watercolors painted in the field are less studied and more spontaneous and luminous.
12:20The warbash divides into several arms, forming beautiful romantic islands covered with tall trees.
12:28These trees are permitted to grow so old because they yield but indifferent timber.
12:34Twenty or thirty feet from the ground, the trunk usually divides into several thick branches which rise to a very great height.
12:43They have a bark of dazzling whiteness which forms a singular contrast with a brown forest when leafless and bare in winter.
12:52I think as much as anything in the entire Bodmer collection at Jocelyn, these scenes along the Wabash reveal his love of just color for color's sake and form for form's sake and just the feeling that he had for nature.
13:15He didn't have to necessarily be so exact and specific. He wasn't doing them for Maximilian. He was perhaps doing them for himself.
13:40In late winter, Maximilian, Bodmer and Drydoppel left the prairies of New Harmony for the
13:45rough frontier town of St. Louis.
13:47St. Louis was the more interesting to us at this moment because we had here the first opportunity of becoming acquainted with the North American Indians in all their originality.
14:00For the office of all the Indian affairs of the West is at St. Louis, under the direction of General Clark, celebrated for his journey with Captain Lewis to the Rocky Mountains.
14:12General Clark introduced us to these Indians, telling them that we'd come far over the ocean to see them.
14:20They all testified their satisfaction in a rather drawling awe.
14:26At St. Louis, I had become acquainted with several very interesting persons.
14:32They advised me to join the American Fur Company to obtain from the directors a passage on board their steamboat.
14:39Maximilian and Bodmer were paying guests of the American Fur Company, certainly the most successful of the fur trading enterprises at this point in American history.
14:50All of the fur trading posts that figure so prominently in the adventure of Maximilian and Bodmer, Fort Pierre, Fort Clark, Fort Union, and Fort McKenzie in Montana, were all under the aegis of the upper Missouri outfit headed by Kenneth McKenzie.
15:07Both McKenzie and Pierre Chateau Jr. were extremely instrumental in Maximilian and Bodmer's voyage up the Missouri River, and they really were his host the entire time that he was in North America.
15:20On April 10th, at 11 o'clock, the steam engine on the Yellowstone was started after the group had assembled on board.
15:31Several cannon shots were fired, and all of our company having collected the Yellowstone left St. Louis.
15:37There were about a hundred persons aboard the Yellowstone, most of whom were those called engagés or voyageurs, who are the lowest class of servants of the fur company.
15:53Most of them are French-Canadian.
15:56They keep big scalping knives in a sheath on their belt.
16:00They shouted, fired guns, and drank.
16:03The river here makes a considerable bend.
16:12The numerous sandbanks did not permit us to proceed in a direct line, but compelled us to take a narrow channel at the outer edge of the bend,
16:21and to take soundings continually, being in great danger of striking against snags.
16:27The Yellowstone had several times struck against submerged trunks of trees, but it was purposely built very strong for dangerous voyagers.
16:41Early in the morning, a large branch of a tree, floating in the water, forced its way into the cabin, carried away part of the door case, and then broke off and was left on the floor.
16:53One might have been crushed in bed.
16:55The Yellowstone continued upriver to Doherty's trading post, at Bellevue, just below Council Bluffs.
17:09Here, and a few miles upriver, at the neighboring post of Jean-Pierre Cabanet, the prince was to witness the first of many Indian ceremonies that he would observe on the expedition.
17:19Bodmer had the opportunity to make several sketches and watercolors.
17:22We were glad to see at the landing place a number of Omaha and Oto Indians, and some few others who, in different groups, looked at us with much curiosity.
17:34All these people were wrapped in buffalo skins with a hairy side outwards.
17:40A few only had aquiline noses, and their eyes were seldom drawn down at the corners.
17:46These journal observations by Maximilian and Bodmer's watercolors and aquitints are of critical importance to contemporary Native American people in order to preserve and sometimes even reconstruct aspects of their traditions.
18:02One of the things in the Omaha culture we've been trying to do is go back and document some of our earlier history and to try to look at what we have maintained today as a measurement of how much has been lost of the culture.
18:16After the father first daubed him with vermilion paint, Mr. Bodmer made a sketch of the man's son.
18:27The Omaha boy, for instance, looking at his, the clan haircut, how he wore his, his, his robe.
18:36I, I think this is a part of the history that the Omaha people don't really know about.
18:42The Omaha tribal organization included ten distinct kinship groups, each with its own ritual obligations.
18:50The boy's hair was cut in this specific fashion to identify him as belonging to one of these groups, and to impress upon the child and his playmates their kinship affiliations.
19:01These kinds of paintings show the people a glimpse of the past, to have some sort of pride and dignity within themselves.
19:09The Indians assembled around our house, and at the request of Mr. Cabanet, performed a dance.
19:33About 20 Omahas joined in it.
19:35The principal dancer wore on his head a feather cap composed of a long tail and wing feathers of owls and birds of prey.
19:44He had a martial appearance, to which his athletic figure greatly contributed.
19:50In the diaries, it talked about the Omaha dance, the Omaha Hayalushka dance.
19:56The dance itself was a dramatization of a war event, or a battle event.
20:01It was acting it out to some artistic form.
20:07Today's Halushka society is still a warrior society, with virtually the entire group comprised of military veterans.
20:15The Omaha's date their annual powwow from the time of Maximilian's visit.
20:19As a historian, I think the diaries and the paintings is a tremendous treasure to the Indian people.
20:29In this time, in this age, going back to their history and their culture, to see some great value in their culture.
20:36On the 5th of May, the Yellowstone left Cabanet's trading house.
20:43We had been on the Missouri exactly four weeks since we left St. Louis.
20:47The character of the country was much changed.
20:51It is for the most part naked and without woods.
20:54The green hills of the prairie approach very near the water.
20:58Trees which are found here are no longer lofty and vigorous, as on the lower Missouri.
21:03Here we saw, on the spine of one of the hills, a burial place on poles,
21:12which was that of a Sioux Indian who had been killed by lightning in a violent thunderstorm.
21:19A little further, up the river, we saw on the hills other burying places.
21:24Most of them were formed of a high platform on four stakes on which the corpse, sewn up in skins, lies at full length.
21:39In the aquatint version of the burial scaffold, the tranquility of Bodmer's image is enhanced by the luxuriant foliage,
21:46but with the dramatic counterpoint of prowling wolves.
21:54Maximilian and Bodmer continued upriver to Fort Pierre.
21:58Named for Pierre Chouteau, Jr., manager of the American Fur Company,
22:02the fort was one of the largest settlements on the entire Missouri.
22:05It was the primary trading post for the Sioux Nation, and was visited by other Plains tribes.
22:13One of the most esteemed men among the Sioux was Vakta Geli, called Gallant Warrior.
22:20Mr. Bodmer expressed the wish immediately upon the arrival of Gallant Warrior to paint his portrait at full length.
22:27So he appeared in his complete state dress.
22:30On his head, he wore long feathers of birds of prey, which were tokens of his warlike exploits,
22:38particularly of the enemies he had slain,
22:40and on his breast, the great medal from the President of the United States.
22:47The fringe on his shirt is human hair said to come from a Mandan foe.
22:52He was a patient subject posing for two days with only occasional interruptions to smoke from his pipe tomahawk.
23:02Like all North American Indians, they highly prize personal bravery,
23:08and therefore constantly wear the marks of distinction which they have received for their exploits.
23:13This Sioux, named Woman of the Crow Nation, suggesting a kinship with that tribe,
23:32wears a dress fringed with twisted metal cones, or tinklers, at the hem,
23:37which would make a musical sound as she walked.
23:41Her summer robe, made of buffalo hide with all the hair removed to make it lighter,
23:45is decorated in an elaborate geometric pattern called a box-and-border style.
23:51Maximilian purchased a woman's robe much like this one.
23:57Box-and-border robes were popular on the Central Plains, particularly among the Sioux.
24:02They were most frequently called women's robes, and usually were worn by women.
24:10However, Bodmer depicted an Assiniboine chief draped in a buffalo robe
24:14with a quite similar box-and-border design.
24:19His hair is tinted with red clay,
24:22and he is wearing a grizzly bear claw necklace,
24:25popular with the tribes along the upper Missouri.
24:27I was particularly struck with one Assiniboine on account of his headdress.
24:34He wore across his head a leather strap to each side of which a horn was fixed,
24:39and between them black feathers cut short.
24:43The horns which were cut out of an antelope
24:45had at their point a tuft of horse hair dyed yellow.
24:49Maximilian made copious notes in his journals
24:51about the things that he saw and he collected.
24:54Maximilian was a dedicated scientist
24:57and an absolutely inveterate collector.
25:00On his earlier expedition to South America,
25:03he collected literally thousands of specimens of flora and fauna
25:07in Brazilian cultures.
25:09He even extended that to include an individual.
25:12He took back to Germany with him a Bodacudo native.
25:16He continued the same pattern, of course,
25:18of systematic collecting when he went to North America,
25:22and he was very thorough.
25:23He collected a lot.
25:25For example, in Pennsylvania, in one month,
25:28he had five crates ready to ship home,
25:31and there were 170 birds and 43 turtles
25:34and about 40 or 50 snakes and roughly 40 frogs and toads.
25:40When he began to encounter American Indians,
25:43he began to collect American Indian artifacts,
25:46clothing, utensils, weapons.
25:47Everything interested him, and he collected everything.
25:50Another thing that makes Maximilian's collection very special
25:54is that it is documented.
25:57Virtually everything that he collected, he wrote about,
26:00and he wrote about it copiously in his journals.
26:05Maximilian's artifacts also lend credence
26:07to the realism of Bodmer's watercolors.
26:09When we see how faithfully Bodmer reproduced
26:14the details of a known club,
26:17it increases our confidence in his portrayal
26:20of objects that no longer exist.
26:26Quite aside from what Maximilian collected,
26:29Bodmer's pictures let us see how ornaments
26:32or clothing of all kinds might have been worn,
26:34or what place an object might have occupied in a household.
26:40They are informative, historical documents
26:43that tell us a great deal about the material culture
26:46of the Plains Indians 150 years ago.
26:48But because we know whose lodge this was,
26:54who wore this robe,
26:57what kind of musician this man was,
27:00they do far more than that.
27:02They have a much more human meaning.
27:04They remind us that material culture
27:07was made and used not by some vague generic tribesmen,
27:12but by persons.
27:15In a very real way,
27:17Bodmer's images remind us of something else.
27:21The Mandan, like many other Plains tribes,
27:24called themselves in their own language,
27:26the people.
27:28And Bodmer's pictures remind us very vividly
27:31that they were.
27:38Maximilian, Bodmer, and Drydoppel
27:40had arrived at Fort Union,
27:42the trading base with the Assiniboines,
27:44the end of June 1833,
27:46having taken 75 days to get there from St. Louis.
27:50In July, they pressed upriver to Fort McKenzie,
27:53then the most remote of the outposts on the Missouri,
27:55founded only a year earlier.
27:58The party embarked on the 60-foot-long keelboat Flora
28:01for the last leg of the journey,
28:03a year and two days
28:04since they had arrived on the American continent.
28:10The landscape underwent a dramatic change
28:14as the keelboat entered the Mauvais Terre,
28:17the Badlands.
28:19This brought us to a remarkable place.
28:21On the mountain of the South Bank,
28:23there was a thick, snow-wide layer of sandstone,
28:27which had been partly acted upon by the waters.
28:29At the end, where it is exposed,
28:32being intersected by the valley,
28:34two high pieces in the shape of buildings
28:37had remained standing.
28:39We agreed to give these original works of nature
28:42the name of the White Castles.
28:44A bit further upriver,
28:55the party encountered a large band of Azena,
28:58or Grovans,
28:59who besieged the Flora,
29:01demanding gifts or trade items.
29:03I found out that at the mouth of the Arrow River
29:07in 1832 or 1833,
29:12the ship going up to Missouri
29:15landed and met a huge camp of my people
29:18to go onto the prairies.
29:21And there, Carl Bodmer met some of our great men.
29:26They said they were brave and hardy,
29:29feared they'd burned some forts in Canada.
29:32Our situation was anything but agreeable,
29:35for these were the same Indians
29:37who had demolished a fort on the frontiers of Canada
29:39two years before.
29:41They'd killed a clerk and 18 other persons.
29:45If it was their intention to treat us in a hostile manner,
29:49there was no way for us to escape.
29:52And here, Carl Bodmer
29:55drew the two principal chiefs of the tribe,
30:00Mexacuhistan and Natosha.
30:02And they were great and proud and strong men.
30:07Their job was to protect the tribe and to lead it.
30:12And this is the first time I have met
30:14our earliest ancestors that we can see
30:17on a face-to-face basis.
30:20Iron That Moves was one of the many warriors
30:23who boarded the keelboat
30:24and one of the principal causes of concern
30:26as he had threatened to shoot
30:28the superintendent of Fort McKenzie the year before.
30:31But he was most friendly to Maximilian and Bodmer.
30:34So a combination of the journals and the visuals
30:37was just incredibly attractive
30:40and meaningful to me.
30:42And I'm sure that it did to all the other Indian people
30:46that are aware of the works of Carl Bodmer and the prince.
30:49In this singular company,
30:53we began to pass through the most interesting part
30:56of the whole course of the Missouri.
31:00Here on both sides of the river,
31:02the most strange forms are seen.
31:04And you may fancy that you see colonnades,
31:08pulpits, organs with their pipes,
31:11old ruins, fortresses, castles,
31:15and churches with pointed spires.
31:18And a painter who had leisure
31:20might fill a whole volume
31:22with these original landscapes.
31:25As proof of this,
31:26we may refer to some of these drawings
31:28which Mr. Bodmer sketched very accurately.
32:34Fort McKenzie, the westernmost outpost of the American Fur Company, had been erected
32:45in the previous year.
32:47We approached the landing place and at length set foot on shore amidst a cloud of smoke
32:53caused by the firing of the Indians.
32:56We were received by the whole population with the Indian chiefs at their head with whom
33:01we all shook hands.
33:04There were 800 Blackfeet warriors gathered at Fort McKenzie to trade with the fur company
33:09to greet Maximilian and Bodmer.
33:13Bodmer's careful attention to detail, often missed by the other early western artists,
33:17shows us the varying sizes of the teepees indicating family size and wealth.
33:29The Blackfeet were a nation formed by the Siksika, the Bloods and the Pagan tribes.
33:37Maximilian estimated that the nation must have been 18,000 to 20,000 strong since they could
33:42bring into the field 5,000 to 6,000 warriors.
33:46This Pagan man's robe indicates he was most successful in battle, with blood flowing from his enemies,
33:54dozens of hoof prints representing stolen horses, as well as guns, bows and war clubs, all captured
34:01from other warriors.
34:03In their domestic life, the Blackfeet, like all North Americans, are quiet and peaceable.
34:10They are said, however, to be more aggressive than other nations.
34:15This Pagan chief is so plainly dressed because he is in mourning for his dead nephew, who
34:21had just been killed by blood Indians near the fort.
34:24He threatened indiscriminate retaliation and revenge, causing much concern.
34:30This is the chief's uncle, also in mourning, indicating the depth of his grief by cutting
34:35his hair short and smearing it with white clay.
34:40There is no particular marriage ceremony among the Blackfeet.
34:44The man pays for the wife and takes her to him.
34:48The purchase price is announced to the father of the girl by a friend.
34:52If he accepts it, the girl is given up and the marriage is concluded.
34:59The men that Bodmer and Maximilian saw dressed themselves much more elaborately than the women.
35:04This Pagan warrior, child of the wolf, is bedecked with brass rings, a beaded bib,
35:10an impressive bear claw necklace, and is holding an eagle feather fan.
35:15The blue dentallium shells in his hair were traded in from Pacific Coast tribes, while the
35:21long white ear ornaments were crafted from West Indies conch shells as a cottage industry
35:26in New Jersey and brought in as a trade item by the fur company.
35:34Many Indians were quite affectionate and embraced the whites.
35:37Others were noisy and angry.
35:40They are always dangerous to white men hunting in the mountains, especially beaver trappers,
35:46and they kill them whenever they fall into their hands.
35:50But many tribes fought more with each other than with the whites.
35:59On the 28th of August at daybreak, we were awakened by musket shots.
36:04When we entered the courtyard of the fort, all of our people were in motion, and some
36:09were firing from the roofs.
36:12On ascending, we saw the whole prairie covered with Indians on foot and on horseback, and they
36:17were firing at the fort.
36:19About 18 or 20 tents of Blackfeet had been surprised by 600 Assiniboines and Crees.
36:26The enemy had cut up the tents of the Blackfeet and discharged their guns and arrows at them,
36:32and killed and wounded many.
36:36Four women and several children lay dead near the fort.
36:40Mr. Mitchell was employed in admitting the Blackfeet women and children who were at the
36:44door of the fort when a hostile Indian with his bow bent appeared before the gate and explained,
36:51White men, make room.
36:52I will shoot those enemies.
36:55This showed that the attack was not directed against the whites, but only against the Blackfeet.
37:04The warriors were everything.
37:06War was probably the ultimate aspect of Indian society because it brought the most honor.
37:13A fifth generation descendant of one of Maximilian's guides, Indian writer and historian James
37:19Welch, at the site of Fort McKenzie.
37:22Well, the warrior society was based primarily on gaining honor, gaining respect.
37:30Young Indians, it was the only way to become a man, but always it was on a very small scale
37:36as we think of battle today.
37:39A large group of warriors might entail 200 to 300 people, and a battle, maybe 20 or 30 people
37:49altogether would have gotten killed.
37:52So the idea of war wasn't meant to annihilate another group of people.
37:57The structure of Indian society was and still is tribal.
38:03There was no national Indian government to formulate and adjudicate laws or offer protection to
38:08one tribe against another.
38:10So each tribe had to protect itself.
38:13The tribal society, the warrior society, was absolutely necessary for survival.
38:19Indians battled with each other over such diverse reasons as territory.
38:28It was a very important idea in that you had your territory.
38:32You didn't particularly own it, but it was your territory.
38:36And it was up to you to patrol the bounds of your territory and to drive out any intruders
38:42because they were obviously up to no good.
38:43A tribe might lay claim to hundreds of square miles of their hunting territory, defending it
38:56from incursions by other groups.
38:58But there were no individual property rights.
39:02The Indian people believed that this land was everybody's.
39:05There was no ownership.
39:07And you could not own a piece.
39:08There's no way you can own a piece of this ground and call it yours.
39:11So it was everybody's.
39:14And they believed that the first creator made it all the animals, and especially the buffalo,
39:18for the use of the people.
39:20The buffalo, or Madu Tahka, we call them.
39:23And that's the grandfather because he's the one that is the strong one.
39:27He's the one that's quick and he's powerful.
39:29And he gives us a lot.
39:30He gives us food.
39:31He gives us clothing, shelter, everything we need we get from the buffalo.
39:35And so when the fur trappers first came in, the buffalo hunters, before they start slaughtering,
39:41there was no problem at all.
39:43There was actually a lot of trade value for both sides, for the Indian and the white side.
39:48So when the buffalo start going out very rapidly, when they start killing out the animals,
39:57the Indian finally start seeing a part of them die.
40:00Even today, the old folks, they still talk about that.
40:04They're still feelings about how they took away the buffalo.
40:07Once they took away the buffalo, once that went,
40:10then the tribe pretty much culturally start going downhill.
40:14When the herds went out, that was more or less the end of the culture as they knew at that time,
40:23and the start of a new culture.
40:29Maximilian's original plans were to travel up the Missouri as far as the Rocky Mountains.
40:35But in view of the unsettled nature of relations with the Indians,
40:39from Fort Mackenzie he turned back downriver to winter over at Fort Clark.
40:44We had just turned a point of land and were looking for a sheltered spot for landing
40:49when we observed the Mandan village of Mitutang.
40:53A couple of women in their round leather boats set out across the river.
40:58At no great distance beyond was Fort Clark, which we reached,
41:05and we were welcomed on the shore by Mr. Kipp, the director and clerk of the fur company.
41:11Because Kipp was married to the daughter of a prominent Mandan family,
41:15Maximilian and Bodmer were welcomed into the family lodge,
41:19and so by the entire village population.
41:22As a consequence, they were made privy to many unknown aspects of Mandan culture.
41:29The high stakes are shrines, wrapped with feathers and sacred offerings.
41:35Religion permeated Mandan life as it did with most tribes.
41:40These are effigies of the sun and moon,
41:43symbolizing two of the most powerful deities,
41:46the Lord of life, creator of all things, and the old woman who never dies.
41:51who is associated with corn and the buffalo.
41:55No major decision or undertaking was made without first invoking the help of a deity.
42:02This skull shrine was related to beliefs about the human body after death,
42:07and was used as a fasting place for those seeking supernatural powers.
42:13The Hidatsas and Mandan were divided into age-related societies
42:18into which an individual purchased membership,
42:20going from one society to the next as he or she grew older.
42:24The Buffalo Bull Society was one of the last and most prestigious for Mandan men.
42:30In their dance, they wear the skin of the upper part of the head,
42:35the mane of the buffalo with its horns.
42:38But two select individuals, the bravest of all,
42:42who from then onward may never run from the enemy,
42:45wear a perfect imitation of the buffalo's head.
42:49On the 7th of March, the Hidatsa Dog Society danced at the Medicine Lodge at Mittutank.
43:12The four principal dogs wore an immense headdress hanging down to the shoulders composed of raven's feathers,
43:19finished at the tips with small white down feathers.
43:24In the middle of this mass of feathers, the outspread tail of a wild turkey was fixed.
43:31The warriors formed a circle round a large drum which was beaten by five men.
43:38The dog dancers accompanied the rapid and violent beat with the whistle of their war pipes,
43:44then suddenly began to dance.
43:46Today's powwows are the contemporary expression of the earlier ceremonies.
44:14With dance competitions, an opportunity to gather with family members who have moved away from the reservations,
44:20and to meet other tribes.
44:22But also to reinforce the powerful cultural traditions going back hundreds, even thousands of years.
44:29In their dance, the women rock from side to side, always remaining in the same spot.
44:37The first day of January set in with increasing cold, which at 8 in the morning was 32 degrees below zero.
45:01On the second day, 25 degrees below zero.
45:05And on the third day, the mercury sank into the ball and froze.
45:10During these days, some of our woodcutters had their noses and cheeks frostbitten.
45:16The horizon was hazy. The river smoked.
45:20On the 10th of March, two engangers arrived with letters and a sledge laden with dried meat.
45:27One of these men was blinded by the snow, a circumstance not unusual for this month.
45:33According to the Mandan calendar, March is named as the Snow Blind Moon, or the moon of the sore eyes.
45:43In our own room, the boots and shoes were frozen so hard, we could scarcely put them on.
45:50Ink, collars and pencils were perfectly useless.
45:54And though standing close to the fire, they were completely frozen and had to be thawed with hot water.
46:02Provisions grew short.
46:04Fresh meat became scarce and then non-existent as the buffalo became harder to find.
46:09The diet consisted almost entirely of beans and boiled maize.
46:13Maximilian became seriously ill.
46:16During the tedium of my confinement to bed, I was enlivened by the frequent visits of the Indians.
46:22And I never neglected my journal, which from fever and consequent weakness was often very fatiguing.
46:30Judging from the symptoms, he was suffering from scurvy.
46:34Bodmer, though terribly hampered by the effects of the sub-zero cold on his materials,
46:40painted some of his most accomplished and perceptive portraits during this intensely difficult time.
46:47Obsichte, great blackness, a Mandan warrior.
46:56Maripahu, eagle's beak, wearing pony bead earrings made in Venice.
47:06His brother, Masi Karendi, flying war eagle, was a member of the band of distinguished warriors
47:16who regulated the important affairs of the Mandans.
47:21Mahi Nika, young war eagle, was, like his brother, a deaf-mute.
47:26They were industrious hunters who supplied Maximilian with meat during the harsh winter,
47:31conversing easily with each other in sign language.
47:35His face is blackened in the warrior's fashion to commemorate a recent battle with the Assiniboines.
47:40Arihirish, pathfinder, and Biroka, both Hidatsa.
47:48Arihirish was a respected Hidatsa chief, member of the tribal council, an impressive warrior.
47:54Biroka was a man of obvious substance with a beautifully decorated robe.
48:00The sunburst pattern represented the feathered bonnet of the accomplished warrior.
48:05His painted hat was made from the hide of the prized white buffalo.
48:11Yellowfeather, a young Mandan warrior, was fascinated by Bodmer's paintings
48:16and asked the artist to decorate his war shield with a bird and to give him a copy of this painting.
48:22Yellowfeather also asked for art supplies of his own.
48:26And this is one of the many paintings he produced.
48:29Another Mandan, a great chief and warrior, Manto Taup, forebears, was also an enthusiastic painter.
48:39He represented his battle exploits by painting his body, his clothing, and this buffalo robe.
48:45Maximilian wrote that no Mandan chief had more heroic accomplishments than Manto Taup.
48:52He was one of Maximilian's most informative and accurate sources of information about the culture of the Mandan.
48:59Spending many hours with him describing the complex Mandan ceremonies and tribal life.
49:04And judging from his writings, Maximilian developed a relationship with Manto Taup that transcended that of anthropologist and informant and ripened into friendship.
49:13He has been so often noted in my narrative that I must here insert a few words respecting this eminent man.
49:22For he was fully entitled to this description, being not only a distinguished warrior, but possessing many fine and noble traits of character.
49:35Three years after Bodmer painted this striking portrait, Manto Taup died of smallpox, brought upriver by white traders.
49:44Horribly disfigured by the disease, he saw his death as ignoble, his life as wasted.
49:50He died embittered and disillusioned by the white man's abuses and broken promises.
49:55His last words to his tribe were recorded.
49:59I have been in many battles and often wounded, but the wounds of my enemies I exult in.
50:06But today I am wounded by those same white dogs that I have always considered and treated as brothers.
50:12I do not fear death, my friends.
50:15You know it.
50:16But to die with my face so rotten that even the wolves will shrink with horror from seeing me.
50:22And say to themselves, that is for bears, a friend of the whites.
50:33Maximilian and Bodmer visited the villages along the upper Missouri at a pivotal time in history.
50:39A few years earlier and they would not have met the Blackfeet who had only recently begun trading with the American Fur Company.
50:45And at a particularly poignant coincidence of time for the Mandan and Hidatsa.
50:52A month after their departure from this Mandan village near Fort Clark, the Sioux attacked them.
50:57And the neighboring Hidatsa village, destroying them both.
51:00Only a handful of the inhabitants survived.
51:03And the smallpox scourge that killed Matatope carried away virtually all of the Mandans
51:09and decimated the other tribes along the upper Missouri.
51:20Maximilian, the aristocratic German with all the prejudices and conditioning of his social class,
51:27was able to gain the trust and comradeship of literally hundreds of Indians.
51:32Bodmer, youthful, inexperienced, developed into a masterful portraitist
51:38and landscape painter with obvious empathy for the people he painted.
51:43His drawings, watercolors and aquitints give us today a profoundly moving,
51:48yet highly accurate account of the American frontier of the 1830s
51:53and of its diverse human population.
51:56Today, this priceless collection of Bodmer's paintings and Maximilian's journals
52:10are at the Jocelyn Museum's Center for Western Studies in Omaha,
52:15just a few miles from where Major Doherty's Indian Agency
52:19and Cabernet's trading post on the Missouri River once stood.
52:24It has come full circle back to the people and the land that inspired its creation.
52:33Like a dream, these marvelous figures drift past the view of the astonished traveler.
52:40Only by sketching the most striking ones do they later still survive
52:45in the rewarding recollection of this distant, forgotten world.
52:50It is the custom of my people when you receive a great gift from someone,
53:00and the works of Prince Maximilian and Karl Bodmer are great gifts,
53:05that we must give the gift back.
53:07I am not an artist or anything else, but I will give a gift back that is customary with us.
53:14And this is a song.
53:16This is a Brave Heart honor song that was probably sung when the Prince and Karl Bodmer came up this river.
53:30And I will sing it again over 150 years later in their honor.
53:35And I give it to them.
53:37They are singing it again over 150 years later in their birth.
53:38For the people of the world where the fathers were bought
53:39and raised in their lives.
53:40For the people of the land.
53:41For the people of the world have thought,
53:42they are not that bad.
53:43The people of the world have thought
53:45they are not that bad.
53:46That they say they are not that bad.
53:47Yes, they are not that bad.
53:48The people of the time.
53:49These are good at helping him because they can go back to the people and because they use
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