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Show 46 scientific observation and artistic interpretation must always be a challenging and hazardous venture. Examination of the fourth portrait figure may further illuminate this issue. Mahchsi-Nihka, a deaf-mute Mandan warrior, stands to the immediate left of Sih-Chida in the proof. Of the five portrait figures, Mahchsi-Nihka is the only observer not dressed in his best clothes, usually worn by the Indians for their formal portraits. Bodmer's watercolor portrait of Mahchsi-Nihka is unfinished; while head and shoulders are complete, the rest of the figure has been left as a rough pencil sketch.2^ In his hand Mahchsi-Nihka holds an unusual wooden club, carved and inset with stone or metal spikes. For the aquatint Bodmer substituted a more traditional stone-headed club. Rather than a spectator to the ceremony, the figure of Mahchsi-Nihka is used by Bodmer as an invitation to the viewer to actively participate in the scene. Facing outward, this figure confronts the viewer, engaging his attention and drawing him into the action. Insertion of Mahchsi-Nihka into the aquatint may have seemed logical to Bodmer, since in early February a group of Assiniboins stole some Hidatsa horses, and there was an immediate retaliatory raid in which Mahchsi-Nihka participated. Afterward he posed proudly for Bodmer, his face blackened to commemorate the fight, his hair ornamented with a cock feather and wooden sticks representing the number of times he had been struck or grazed by weapons. He is clad in a robe, dressed plainly as a warrior for battle.24 It could be argued that Bodmer had a very definite purpose for including Mahchsi-Nihka in the print image of Scalp Dance. It is possible that by inserting this figure as one of the main participants in the military action that |
