Tombs of Assiniboin Indians on Trees

Artist Karl Bodmer (Swiss, 1809 - 1893)

Author Prince Maximilian of Wied (1782 - 1867)

Date1832-1834

MediumHand-colored aquatint

Dimensions23 1/2 × 17 1/4 in. (59.7 × 43.8 cm)

ClassificationsPrint

Credit LineCrystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas, 2009.26.30

Accession number 2009.26.30

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 TextWhen the expedition reached Fort Union on June 24, 1833, they entered Assiniboine territory. Like the related Sioux tribes and other Plains Indian tribes, the Assiniboine laid their dead to rest on scaffolds and sometimes in the branches of trees. The prince mentions one of these tree burials in his diary: “On 4 July Mr. Bodmer drew one of the trees in the forest near Fort Union on which several dead bodies lay. The trunk and branches were partly painted red”; and in a footnote: “The ground in the forest around these trees is a genuine rose garden, for the thick bushes of Rosa - were now completely covered with fragrant flowers. Through its blossoms, nature seems to want to make us forget this unpleasant way of treating the dead.” Interestingly, the quiet, peaceful mood of the scene of the original drawing was changed in the later print by the engraver who added the three prowling wolves. On July 6, the travelers continued their trip to Fort McKenzie. This time they boarded a keelboat, since larger steamboats could not navigate the narrow Missouri and its low waters above the Yellowstone River junction.