Unidentified Figures

Description

In June of 1833 on the voyage upstream, the steamboat stopped briefly at Fort Clark. A large party of Crows was camped nearby, and Maximilian met their leader, the famous Crow chief Eripuass ( "Rotten Belly"). This was Maximilian's only real contact with the Crows, although he heard much about them from other sources and greatly admired their beautifully made and widely traded clothing and weaponry. The figure in the center wearing a feather in his hair appears as one of the group of Crows in Vignette XIII of the aquatints. The faint inscription at the top of the sketch, "Fort Mandan," is puzzling. That name had been officially applied to the temporary camp or post established earlier in the area by Lewis and Clark, but not to the Fort Clark that Maximilian visited. The reference may be simply descriptive, indicating that the fort was in Mandan territory.