In 1833, German Prince Maximilian of Wied, his manservant, David Dreidoppel and Karl Bodmer, a 23-year old Swiss artist, traveled nearly 3,000 miles on the Missouri River from St. Louis to Fort McKenzie near Great Falls, Montana. They traveled 13 months by steamboat and keelboat as guests of the American Fur Company.

Maximilian, a trained scientific observer, kept a detailed journal and collected natural history specimens. Bodmer sketched and painted scenes of everyday Plains Indian life, Indian portraits and landscapes along the Missouri. They left a vivid word and picture account of their journey to the upper Midwest frontier, less than three decades after Lewis and Clark made their journey.
Bodmer's watercolors and Maximilian's written descriptions are considered the most complete and reliable eyewitness accounts of the upper Midwest Indian cultures. They have been a standard source for scholars since their first publication.

Today, through Bodmer's work, we can still share their experience as they visited Indian tribes along the Missouri more than a century and a half ago. The North Dakota Lewis & Clark Interpretive Center is one of only four galleries in the world to have a complete set of 81 Karl Bodmer prints in its possession.

The Cottonwoods gift shop has books and lithographic prints relating to the Bodmer collection. Call the Interpretive Center for more details at (877) 462-8535.

Mato-Tope, Adorned with the insignia of his Warlike Deeds In this portrait of Mandan Chief Mato-Tope, or "Four Bears", Bodmer showed him as he might appear in readiness for combat, stripped of the finer regalia of his office, with the symbols of his past accomplishments in battle exposed on his body. In addition to several coup feathers, he wears in his hair six colored wooden sticks, signifying wounds received in battle, and a wooden replica knife he once took from a Cheyenne chief during hand to hand combat. The large turkey feather represents an injury Mato-Tope received from an arrow. The cluster of owl feathers at the back of his head identifies him as having been a member of the prestigious Dog Society. The stripes on his right arm commemorate additional feats of war. The large hand painted on his chest indicates that he had captured prisoners.

Pehriska-Ruhpa in the Costume of the Dog Dance As principal leader of the Hidatsa Dog Society, Pehriska-Ruhpa posed for Bodmer in full society regalia for the second of two portraits of him featured in the atlas. Bodmer depicted him wearing the distinctive society headdress of magpie and wild turkey feathers and a long cloth mantle or trailer over his shoulders. Pehriska-Rupha, or "Two Ravens", wears a war whistle around his neck and carries a rattle in one hand made of small deer hooves or dewclaws attached to a beaded stick, also a society emblem. The dance he performed for Bodmer usually accompanied by the sound of drums and rattles.

Pehriska-Ruhpa In this portrait, Pehriska-Ruhpa's shirt is decorated with broad bands of quillwork and fringed with ermine fur, locks of human hair, and dyed horsehair. His quilled leggings feature long flaps at the bottom. He also wears a distinctive necklace of grizzly bear claws attached to a roll of otter tail skin decorated with small trade beads.