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Káma-Kapúska! Making Marks in Indian Country, 1833–34

Péhriska-Rúhpa note 1

Journal entry for December 25, 1833, in The North American Journals of Prince Maximilian of Wied, vol. 3, ed. Stephen S. Witte and Marsha V. Gallagher (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press with the Joslyn Art Museum, 2008–12), 107. Specific entries will henceforth be given as: Date (JAM volume:page).

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Péhriska-Rúhpa 3 numak'aki figure plain 2021-04-30T06:10:34-07:00
Péhriska-Rúhpa (Two Ravens) was a Minitari warrior and potentially a leader of Amatihá (Fourth Village). Descriptions of him suggest that he was the Minitari counterpart of Mató-Tópe: he often visited Fort Clark on village business, was a member of the Meníss Óhate (Dog Society) in his village, and wore his honor marks on his buffalo robe. While Mató-Tópe and Péhriska-Rúhpa appear to have been feuding through December 1833, the two reconciled in early January 1834 and were often compatriots thereafter, visiting the Europeans and hunting together.
Karl Bodmer painted two portraits of Péhriska-Rúhpa over the course of the winter of 1833–34, and Péhriska-Rúhpa offered his own goods in exchange for his first completed portrait—an indication that Bodmer, who was an excellent copyist of his own work, was sometimes painting for his sitters and making copies for Maximilian zu Wied-Neuwied (or vice versa), though how often this may have been the case is unclear.‍[1] Because Péhriska-Rúhpa did not offer his painted buffalo robe as part of this exchange, Wied-Neuwied later commissioned Péhriska-Rúhpa for a copy of the robe.‍[2]

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Related images (page):
- Karl Bodmer, Péhriska-Rúhpa, Hidatsa Man, 1834.