Ptihn-Tak-Ochatä, Dance of the Mandan Women
Artist
Karl Bodmer
(Swiss, 1809 - 1893)
Date1838-39
MediumEngraving, etching, roulette on paper, hand-colored
DimensionsSheet: 9 3/4 × 13 1/4 inches (24.8 × 33.7 cm)
Image: 8 1/2 × 9 1/2 inches (21.6 × 24.1 cm)
Mat: 16 3/4 × 19 1/2 inches (42.5 × 49.5 cm)
Image: 8 1/2 × 9 1/2 inches (21.6 × 24.1 cm)
Mat: 16 3/4 × 19 1/2 inches (42.5 × 49.5 cm)
Credit LinePurchase of the Nelda C. and H.J. Lutcher Stark Foundation, 1994
Object number91.121.42
ClassificationsPrints
Label TextBodmer’s print suggests the importance of the white buffalo to indigenous people. The artist observed a ceremony performed by women of the Mandan tribe. They were members of the White Buffalo Cow Society, an association of the elderly women. The performed a dance to call the buffalo, to bring them to provide food for the people. The white buffalo had a special significance. Notice that the dancers wear cylindrical hats made from white buffalo fur. The leader wears a robe of a white buffalo skin. Connect with Robert von Sternberg’s Bison, Hood River, Oregon, and W.H. Dunton’s Last of the Buffalo.
ProvenancePurchased June 19, 1967 through (Kenney Galleries, New York) by Donald S. Graham, Denver, Colorado; purchased November 28, 1994 through (Anderson O'Brien Gallery, Omaha, Nebraska) by the Nelda C. and H.J. Lutcher Stark Foundation; accessioned to the Stark Museum of Art
On View
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