Noapéh, Assiniboin Man

Description

Noapéh ("Troop of Soldiers") posed patiently for Bodmer at Fort Union on June 28, though the portrait making was constantly interrupted by his curious family. Noap_h's shirt is elaborately decorated with hair fringe, beaded bands, and painted stripes. The large quilled rosettes on the front and back of his shirt are examples of a decorative device favored by the Assiniboins. The projecting antelope horns of Noapéh's headdress have been cut and thinned and tipped with dyed horsehair. Between the horns is a crest of clipped feathers. All of this is fastened to a leather strap which secured the headdress to the head. The long fringe is made of leather, each strand bound intermittently with porcupine quills. Maximilian apparently could not persuade Noapeh to part with this headdress, but managed to barter a similar one from another Indian. A portrait based on this watercolor appeared as Tableau 12 in the atlas of aquatints.