Assiniboine Medicine Sign

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Artist

Karl Bodmer

Birth and death dates

1809 - 1893

Artist Nationality

Swiss

Title

Assiniboine Medicine Sign

Date

Summer 1833

Dimensions

9 5/8 × 12 1/4 in. (24.4 × 31.1 cm)

Medium

Watercolor on paper

Institution

Joslyn Art Museum

Credit Line

Gift of the Enron Art Foundation

Accession Number

1986.49.172

Rights (i.e. copyright information)

Joslyn Art Museum

Photographer credit

Photograph © Bruce M. White, 2019

Commentary

The buffalo was the staff of life to nomadic Plains tribes like the Assiniboines. Other animals were hunted, but it was the buffalo that provided the bulk of the meat necessary for sustenance and the hide and bone with which to fashion shelter, clothing, and tools. This shrinelike arrangement of a buffalo skull on a rock was described by Maximilian as a medicine sign, a magical device intended to attract the bison herds so necessary to the peoples' existence. The scene was painted near Fort Union in the summer of 1833 and was later reproduced as Vignette XV in the atlas of aquatints.

References in Journal

June 25, 1833

Labels:

Fort Union, North Dakota

Approximate Depicted Location:

Fort Union, North Dakota