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Show 64 Source Materials for Vignette 26 There are two reference sketches for this vignette. Both are held by the Newberry Library and were not part of Maximilian's personal collection. This may be the first indication that there is something unusual about the aquatint and its source materials. The first sketch (Figure 3.1) gives a sense of the series of encounters described in Maximilian's journal entry; in it Maximilian and Bodmer, leading their entourage, pass one group of Indians and approach a delegation waiting to receive them in the right foreground of the sketch.6 The most unusual aspect of this sketch is that Bodmer is a participant in the action, rather than the observer and recorder of the event. For once there can be no doubt that this sketch was executed some time after the actual occurrence. The question is, how much later? Closer examination of the waiting figures also reveals some startling information. Many of the Indian figures are sketches based on fully developed portraits of Indians painted by Bodmer later in the summer at Fort McKenzie. The Indian figure standing to the far right of the image is that of Ihkas-Kinne, a Siksika Blackfeet chief, painted at Fort McKenzie in late August 1833.7 Immediately to the left of him stands a figure similar to the portrait of Hotokaueh-Hoh, a Piegan Indian, also painted in August 1833, two months after the travelers first visited Fort Clark.8 The third figure from the right is even more startling. It is possibly a composite of several sketches, and is, perhaps, composed of elements drawn from Bodmer's memory alone. The facial features of this figure closely resemble those of an unidentified warrior, once thought to be a Piegan Blackfeet.9 However, this portrait figure wears a robe considered to be Atsina. The issue is further complicated |