Unidentified Man

Description

An inscription on a mat that once framed this picture identified the subject as a Piegan Blackfeet. However, the decoration on the buffalo robe is similar to a style Maximilian called typical of the Atsinas: narrow, parallel quilled stripes,mostly yellow, with bits of red cloth sewed on at intervals. An Atsina robe decorated in this fashion and similar to the one in the picture was collected by Maximilian and is now at the Museum für Völkerkunde in Berlin. The diaries indicate that a drawing was made of an Atsina wearing such a robe, and this may be that individual.