Bison-Dance of the Mandan Indians, in front of their Medicine Lodge is Tableau 18 of Bodmer and Maximilian’s Travels in the Interior of North America, 1832 – 34. It depicts a charged moment from a performance of the dance by members of the Mandan Buffalo Bull Society seen by Bodmer at Ft. Clark in April of 1834.

Prior to this staged performance, Bodmer drew and painted detailed studies of the principal figures. In the engraving, Bodmer sets the dramatic ceremonial performance in front of the tribal medicine lodge in the village of Mih-Tuttahang-Kusch where he may have prepared the studies. The original watercolor, Leader of the Mandan Buffalo Bull Society, is a beautiful portrait study that is a remarkably detailed documentation of the full head mask and shield worn by the central figure in the aquatint engraving.

About Karl Bodmer

In 1832-34 German explorer-naturalist Prince Maximilian of Weid-Neuweid traveled the interior regions of North America to document what he referred to as vanishing cultures, the tribes of Native Americans who live in what was then a vast wilderness west of the Mississippi. Accompanying him was 23-year-old Swiss artist Karl Bodmer (1809-93), whom Maximilian employed to capture a “faithful and vivid picture” of American Indian people. During their journey, Bodmer painted chiefs and warriors from the same tribes -- and in some cases the same individuals -- that Lewis & Clark met on their journey nearly three decades before.

If you'd like to see and learn more about this fascinating body of work, click here to buy Karl Bodmer's America at Amazon.com