Assiniboin Indians
Engraved by Geoffroy Printed by Bougeard (unavailable - please enquire)
Tableau 32. Assiniboin Indians
$4,500.00

At Fort Union in June, 1833, Bodmer painted the portraits of two Assiniboin men which later were reproduced together in this print.

Pitapiu, at right, was a member of the Stone band of the Assiniboin tribe. A distinguished warrior, he is shown carrying a rawhide shield adorned with an amulet assuring success in horse raids against the Mandan and the Hidatsa, a whip with a wooden handle hangs from a fur loop around one of his wrists. In this same hand he holds a long bow-lance tipped with a metal spear head and decorated with ribbons of cured bear entrails, painted red. Spears and bow-lances figured prominently in the ceremonies of the Plains military societies. Maximilian noted that this particular weapon was "only for show."

The man at left, whose name is unknown, wears a quilled and beaded shirt fringed with leather instead of hair. He carries a flintlock trade gun. According to Maximilian, such guns were purchased by the American Fur Company from England for about eight dollars and sold to the
Indians for the equivalent of thirty dollars. Many of the company's native customers had little with which to trade except for furs, an ermine skin being worth approximately six dollars. A finely painted bison robe might bring as much as ten dollars.

Other Assiniboin subjects were featured in the atlas as Vignettes XV and XVI and Tableaux 12 and 30.

Text by David Hunt, Director, Stark Museum, Orange, Texas, USA

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