Mahinkacha, Missouri Man

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Artist

Karl Bodmer

Birth and death dates

1809 - 1893

Artist Nationality

Swiss

Title

Mahinkacha, Missouri Man

Date

May 16, 1833

Dimensions

11 3/8 × 10 1/16 in. (28.9 × 25.6 cm)

Medium

Wash and graphite on paper

Institution

Joslyn Art Museum

Credit Line

Gift of the Enron Art Foundation

Accession Number

1986.49.239

Rights (i.e. copyright information)

Joslyn Art Museum

Photographer credit

Photograph © Bruce M. White, 2019

Commentary

The name of this young Missouri man, Mahinkacha ("Maker of Knives"), is inscribed on the reverse of the drawing. On May 16, 1834, while at Joseph Roubidoux's trading post above Cantonment Leavenworth, Maximilian observed that many of the Missouri, Oto and Iowa Indians gathered at the post were wearing thick undles of "wampum" through holes pierced in their ears. Although this rendering lacks detail, the later portrait that appears in the aquatint atlas as Tableau 7 clearly shows Mahinkacha wearing a handsome choker and earring, each made of multiple strands of tubular purple and white shell beads of the wampum type. In the aquatint it is also evident that the garment he wears over his shoulder is a commercial blanket, white with red stripes and a fringed edge.

References in Journal

May 16, 1833

Labels:

genre, portrait

Approximate Depicted Location:

Joseph Roubidoux's trading post, Missouri