Mahinkacha, Missouri Man

Description

The name of this young Missouri man, Mahinkacha ("Maker of Knives"), is inscribed on the reverse of the drawing. On May 16, 1834, while at Joseph Roubidoux's trading post above Cantonment Leavenworth, Maximilian observed that many of the Missouri, Oto and Iowa Indians gathered at the post were wearing thick undles of "wampum" through holes pierced in their ears. Although this rendering lacks detail, the later portrait that appears in the aquatint atlas as Tableau 7 clearly shows Mahinkacha wearing a handsome choker and earring, each made of multiple strands of tubular purple and white shell beads of the wampum type. In the aquatint it is also evident that the garment he wears over his shoulder is a commercial blanket, white with red stripes and a fringed edge.