Omaha Boy

Description

The father of this Omaha child is pictured in Plate 163. He painted his son's face with vermillion for the occasion of the boy's portrait. In Omaha tribal organization there were ten distinct kinship groups, or gentes, each with its own ritual obligations. From the age of two or three until the age of seven or eight, a boy's hair was cut in a specific style that identified him as belonging to one of these groups and impressed upon each child the kinship affiliations of his playmates. This boy's portrait was reproduced as a woodcut in Travels in the Interior of North America.