Mató-Tópe (Four Bears) (c. 1795-1837),
Mandan
Battle with a Cheyenne Chief,
1833,
watercolor, pencil on paper,
12 3/8 x 15 3/8 in.; 31.4325 x 39.0525 cm.
Gift of the Enron Art Foundation
This image records a battle between the Mandan chief, Four Bears, and a Cheyenne enemy. Four Bears recounted the tale in 1834 to the German naturalist-explorer, Prince Maximilian zu Wied. The Prince said:
Mató-Tópe was, on that occasion, on foot, on a military expedition with a few Mandans, when they encountered four Cheyennes, their most virulent foes, on horseback. The chief of the latter, seeing that their enemies were on foot, and that the combat would thereby be unequal, dismounted, and the two parties attacked each other. The two chiefs fired, missed, threw away their guns, and seized their naked weapons; the Cheyenne, a tall, powerful man, drew his knife, while Mató-Tópe, who was lighter and more agile, took his battle-axe. The former attempted to stab Mató-Tópe, who laid hold of the blade of the knife, by which he, indeed, wounded his hand, but wrested the weapon from his enemy, and stabbed him with it, on which the Chayennes took to flight. Mató-Tópe's drawing of the scene . . . shows the guns which they had discharged and thrown aside, the blood flowing from the wounded hand of the Mandan chief . . . and the wolf's tail at their heels -- the Cheyenne being distinguished by the fillet of otter skin on his forehead.
With paper, pencil and colors provided by Maximilian and his artist companion, Karl Bodmer, Mató-Tópe produced this picture of his exploit.