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Káma-Kapúska! Making Marks in Indian Country, 1833–34

Síh-Chidä note 2

December 27, 1833 (JAM 3:109–10). The presence of this document is historically significant, as it testifies to both the retention of treaty documents by Native leaders and the fact that treaties could be translated and recorded in Native languages—here, in Hidatsa (the language of Minitari peoples and understood by all residents of the Awatíkihu), at a time that would have predated the earliest written phonetic forms of the language by George Catlin (1832) and Wied-Neuwied (1833–34). An earlier non-Western form of reading and writing local languages would potentially correspond to the flow of information found in the Numak'aki ka-ka (keeper) books developed later in the nineteenth century.

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Síh-Chidä 3 numak'aki figure plain 2023-01-08T15:05:41+00:00
Síh-Chidä (Be-Yellow Feather) was a twenty-five-year-old Numak'aki warrior from Mít uta hako'sh (First Village). Despite his youth, Síh-Chidä enacted the role of a senior leader in being the first to host Maximilian zu Wied-Neuwied in his village earth lodge for a shared pi'he (smoke) on November 9, 1833, one day after the Europeans arrived at Fort Clark.‍[1] Síh-Chidä may have inherited the rights to this role from his father, Tóhpka-Singkä (Four Men), also known as Les Quatre Hommes (Four Men) to fur trade personnel. Until his recent passing, Tóhpka-Singkä had been peace (first) chief of Mít uta hako'sh and an important leader of the Awatíkihu (Five Villages), with his name appearing on the 1825 treaty between the Awatíkihu and the US military. Síh-Chidä brought his father’s copy of this treaty to show to Wied-Neuwied, suggesting that the leadership rights signified by the document had not yet transferred to another.‍[2]
Síh-Chidä seems to have been fascinated with the act and art of kapús (making marks), and he often drew works during his visits to the Fort Clark studio.‍[3] Like Mató-Tópe, he received supplies and completed additional drawings at home for the Europeans. A number of his works depict himself with honor marks or picture important nápe (dance) figures from village ceremonies. Síh-Chidä was a member of the Meníss Óhate (Dog Society) of Mít uta hako'sh, as was Mató-Tópe, and would have owned his own honor marks and shared in the rights and rites of óhate (society) knowledge. He may have also inherited the rights to his father’s coup marks and hó'pini (“to be holy”) bundles and objects. But Síh-Chidä drew just as many portraits of Karl Bodmer and Wied-Neuwied, and on at least one occasion kept the work for himself—perhaps, Wied-Neuwied suggested, as a mirror action to Bodmer’s recently completed portrait of Síh-Chidä.‍[4]

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