19th Century art depicting Native Americans goes on display in North Dakota

Art from the 19th Century depicting Native American life was put on display in North Dakota on Wednesday.

The State Historical Society of North Dakota bought 26 aquatints made by Swiss-born artist Karl Bodmer during his journey from 1832 to 1834 across the U.S., as far west as present-day Montana, and presented four of them on Wednesday.

The prints, stored at a San Francisco arthouse for some time, were reproduced from 1839 to 1843 from Bodmer’s works during his journey with Prince Maximilian of Wied-Neuwied.

State Historical Society spokeswoman Kara Haff said that the group is reviewing the iamges and will make a plan to exhibit them. The aquatints are presumed to be from an original Bodmer collection.

What Do the Images Depict?

Haff said the aquatints show different scenes and people from America in the 19th century, including Fort Union, a Mandan village, an Arikara warrior, Mandan chief Mato Tope or Four Bears, the funeral scaffold of a Sioux chief, Mandan dog sledges, bison hunting, a scalp dance and travelers along the Missouri River.

Dakota Goodhouse, a Native American historian and enrolled member of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, said that while Bodmer’s images are beautiful and an important part of the history of the American West, some of his pieces are posed and set up, which can spread misinformation about the daily life of Native American peoples.

“When Four Bears got all dressed up for Bodmer’s portrait, it’s not like he went about his everyday life completely dressed up,” Goodhouse said.

What Are Aquatints?

Aquatints were common in Bodmer’s era and often used to illustrate books, said David Borlaug, an owner of Masters Gallery in Bismarck, which facilitated the acquisition.

Haff said that Bodmer’s images were created for a book by Maximilian, titled, Travels in the Interior of North America.

Borlaug explained the creation process of aquatints: “An original painting would then be converted to metal, copper or steel, by an engraver, which is an art form all of its own, in reverse, and then they would pull a print, if you will, off that plate, usually with just one or two colors. Then the next set of artisans would come in, watercolor artists who would hand-tint, add all the colors to each image, one by one by one.”

While Bodmer’s images are printed in textbooks, it is rare to own prints made during the initial publishing, Haff said.

Images ‘Preserves’ Native American Life

Several years after Bodmer’s journey, the tribes along the Upper Missouri River he portrayed in his images were nearly destroyed by a smallpox epidemic in 1837.

Amy Mossett—a member of the State Historical Board and education administrator for the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation’s Tribal Education—said that entire families died and there was no time for people to save or pass along material possessions.

“So much was lost, and so when I look at these images, it just kind of preserves … the images of our culture when it was still very active and still very much alive,” Mossett, a Mandan/Hidatsa member of the MHA Nation, said.

This article includes reporting from The Associated Press.