Wahktägeli, Yankton Sioux Chief

Description

This Yankton chief whose Sioux name meant "Gallant Warrior" was called Big Soldier by the Americans. An impressive man nearly six and one-half feet tall, he was about sixty years old when he posed for Bodmer at the Sioux agency in May of 1833. Wahktägeli's moccasins, leggings, and shirt are embroidered with bands of brightly dyed porcupine quills. The fringe on the shirt sleeve is human hair said to have been taken from a Mandan foe. The feathers bound to his head with strips of red cloth represent enemies slain in battle. In his ears he wears long strings of blue glass beads. Around his neck hangs a large silver peace medal "from the President of the United States." His buffalo robe was tanned to such a striking white that it drew a remark from Maximilian. His face painted with vermillion, Wahktägeli was a patient model, posing for two days and pausing only occasionally to smoke from the pipe-tomahawk held in his hand. An aquatint based on this portrait appears as Tableau 8 in the atlas.