Scalp Dance of the Minatarres

Artist Karl Bodmer (Swiss, 1809 - 1893)

Author Prince Maximilian of Wied (1782 - 1867)

Date1832-1834

MediumHand-colored aquatint

Dimensions17 1/4 × 23 1/2 in. (43.8 × 59.7 cm)

ClassificationsPrint

Credit LineCrystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas, 2009.26.27

Accession number 2009.26.27

DescriptionDisbound from folio atlas volume of forty-eight plates

On View

Not on view

ProvenanceAuthor; to Frederick Schuchart, NY, 1844; (William Reese Company, New Haven, CT); purchased by Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, AR, 2009
Label TextThis dramatic rendering of a Minitarí (also known as Hidatsa) Scalp Dance was based on several field sketches by Bodmer who witnessed this fascinating dance at Fort Clark in the spring of 1834. The Hidatsa performed this dance on two occasions that year: once in February, following a successful retaliatory raid on the Assiniboine, and again in April, after a surprise attack on a Sioux camp.

Hidatsa women dressed like the men of the tribe for this dance and appeared in war shirts with painted faces and weapons. Several of them can be seen wearing coup feathers in their hair, or a horned feather-bonnet, usually reserved only for tribal leaders. They celebrate the brave feats of the men in the tribe. Yet another woman holds aloft a long pole, from which hang a stuffed bird and a scalp. To the right is another scalp suspended from a similar pole. A pile of battle trophies, mostly weapons taken from the enemy, is located at lower center, to which a stooping figure appears to be adding another item. Several men on the left side provide the music for the dance.