Karl Bodmer

A Swiss artist, Karl Bodmer, ascended the Missouri in 1833 with the German explorer-scientist Prince Maximilian of Wied-Neuwied. At Fort McKenzie, where the Blackfeet Indians came to trade furs, he painted their chiefs in full regalia. He was watching early one morning when a war party of Crees and Assiniboins, jealous of the Blackfeet’s trading privileges, attacked the camp outside the fort. The survivors of the slaughter were given refuge in the fort until the main force of Blackfeet came riding to their rescue.