Cross Reference: Case Study: Mató-Tópe and the Practice of Portraiture
“Mató-Tópe serves as an excellent guide to the ways in which portraits could be actively co-created in the Middle Ground. Designated “second chief” in English, he was the war chief of Mít uta hako'sh (First Village), possessing the best military record in the village. Locally he would have been known as a numakshí (“man-to-be-good”), the phrase that marked all Numak'aki village leaders. To be a numakshí, Mató-Tópe was required to belong to at least one óhate, or society, and to hold the rights of a ka-ka, or knowledge keeper. As second chief, he likely sat on the larger council of the Awatíkihu (Five Villages). And like all residents of the Awatíkihu, Mató-Tópe was multilingual, able to speak the languages and dialects of the Numak'aki and Minitari peoples, as well as several languages of the villages’ trading partners.[33]” Go to page