Niätóhsä, Gros Ventre Chief

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Artist

Karl Bodmer

Birth and death dates

1809 - 1893

Artist Nationality

Swiss

Title

Niätóhsä, Gros Ventre Chief

Date

August 5, 1833

Dimensions

10 1/16 × 12 9/16 in. (25.6 × 31.9 cm)

Medium

Watercolor and graphite on paper

Institution

Joslyn Art Museum

Credit Line

Gift of the Enron Art Foundation

Accession Number

1986.49.282.a

Rights (i.e. copyright information)

Joslyn Art Museum

Photographer credit

Photograph © Bruce M. White, 2019

Commentary

Early on August 5 a party of Gros Ventres approached the keelboat. Niätóhsä, whose name meant either "Little Frenchman" or "French Child," stayed on board while the vessel sailed upstream to an Gros Ventre encampment. Niätóhsä was a chief and a medicine man. He wears metal hoop earrings and his hair is smeared with red clay. The thick bundle of hair at the top of his head was not an uncommon Plains style, but Maximilian implies that among the Gros Ventres this style was restricted to medicine men. A. L. Kroeber; who studied the Gros Ventres more than fifty years later, noted that keepers of the sacred pipes could not cut their hair and so wore it just above the forehead.

References in Journal

August 5, 1833

Labels:

portrait

Approximate Depicted Location:

Missouri River, Montana