Mandan dance

Its always wonderful to get cards new to my collection...a dear friend sent 3 purchased from the British Museum's gift store. Here is Karl Bodmer's view of a Mandan dance. Bodmer was a German artist who traveled with Prince Maxmillian on a trip into the American west in 1833. They visited the Mandan, Arikara and Hidatsa, 3 powerful tribes whose economy was based on agriculture and trade as well as hunting. Bodmer, like American artist George Catlin, painted scenes of these communities just before a smallpox epidemic would reduce their populations significantly and leave them vulnerable to the Lakota.

The image may look familiar...before making "Dances with Wolves" production staff closely examined Bodmer and Catlin paintings for details on Native American clothing, ceremonial regalia and weapons. This illustration influenced the bison hunting dance; for more info see Dances with Wolves: The Illustrated Story of the Epic Film, Newmarket Press (1990)