A Unique Pictorial Interpretation of Blackfoot Indian Religion in 1846-1847
1971; Duke University Press; Volume: 18; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês
10.2307/481532
ISSN1527-5477
Autores Tópico(s)Archaeology and Natural History
ResumoSometime in 1846 or 1847 a Blackfoot Indian artist painted for Father Nicolas Point, S.J., an unsigned watercolor depicting various aspects of Blackfoot Indian religious beliefs. The details of this painting are interpreted here for the first time. In 1846-1847 Father Nicolas Point, S.J., was the first Christian missionary to spend a winter among the warlike Blackfoot Indians on the plains of present-day Montana. Making his headquarters at the American Fur Company's trading post of Fort Lewis, on the Missouri River near the mouth of the Marias, he extended his labors to the hunting camps of the Indians. Point's own account of his experiences among the Blackfoot was published one hundred and twenty years later under the title, Wilderness Kingdom, The Journals & Paintings of Father Nicolas Point, edited by another member of the Jesuit order, Father Joseph P. Donnelly. The text is handsomely illustrated in full color with reproductions of numerous small portraits of Indians and scenes in Indian life executed by Father Point himself, in addition to a few paintings made for him by Indians. The latter are of particular interest because they are the earliest known examples of Blackfoot Indian painting in the white man's medium of watercolor on paper. Despite the fact that Point was preceded among the Blackfoot by two more talented artists, George Catlin (in 1832), and Karl Bodmer (in 1833), he was the first white artist to portray a number of significant aspects of traditional
Referência(s)