Wakusásse, Fox Man

Description

The inscription on this portrait, which identifies the subject as Wakusásse, a Muskake (Fox) Indian, adds that the e in his name is to be pronounced. He wears a deer hair roach on his head, partially dyed with vermillion and ornamented with a feather as a mark of success in battle. See Plate 352, Number 2, for a detailed rendering of this type of ornament, and Plate 132 for a depiction of the hair style which formed its base of attachment. Wakusásse also wears numerous shell or metal drop earrings, a blanket, and a heavy necklace of shell beads, the latter two only sketchily indicated. Wakusásse is pictured in Tableau 3 of the aquatints with Massika, the Sauk Indian shown in Plate 132. Another Fox man was meant to have been depicted with Massika in the aquatint, but for unknown reasons his portrait could not be engraved and that of Wakusásse was substituted.