MANDAN IMAGES

Máh-to-tóh-pa, Four Bears, Second Chief, in Full Dress, 1832
Mandan/Numakiki by George Catlin

"No tragedian," Catlin wrote, "ever trod the stage, nor gladiator ever entered the Roman Forum, with more grace and manly dignity" than did Four Bears as he arrived for his sitting. He wore embroidered deerskin leggings and a shirt decorated with pictographic accounts of his war feats. His headdress of eagle feathers and ermine was crowned with buffalo horns, which convey his "exceeding valour, worth, and power."

Mah-tó-he-ha, Old Bear, a Medicine Man, 1832
Mandan/Numakiki by George Catlin

Crow's Heart, Mandan 1908 He is wearing a traditional deerskin tunic. Photographed by Edward S. Curtis. Library of Congress

Rainmaking Among the Mandan, 1837–39
Mandan/Numakiki by George Catlin