Wähktageli (“Gallant Warrior”) was the Yankton Sioux Chief referred to by the Americans as “Big Soldier” because he was well over six feet tall. He was nearly sixty years old when he posed for Bodmer in 1833. He painted his face with vermillion for this striking portrait; he took occasional breaks to smoke from the pipe-tomahawk in his left hand.

Wähktageli’s moccasins, leggings and shirt sleeves are elaborately embroidered with blue- and yellow-dyed porcupine quills. The fringe sewn to the shirt sleeve is human hair taken from a Mandan enemy.

The feathers tied to his head represent foes slain in battle. He wears a ribbon around his neck with a peace medal bearing the inscription “from the President of the United States”. Wähktageli’s buffalo robe was tanned to an unusually bright white, most apparent in the portrait where it is draped over his right arm.

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