O-kee-pa: a religious ceremony; and other customs of the Mandans
FROM THE LIBRARY OF THE CHIEF JUSTICE OF NORTH DAKOTA
London: J.E. Taylor and Co. for Trübner and Co., 1867. First edition.
Octavo (9 15/16” x 6 13/16”, 263mm x 173mm): binder’s blank, A4 B-D8 E2 [$2 signed; –A1]. 30 leaves, pp. [8] (half-title, blank, title, blank, preface, blank, epistle from Maximilian of Neuwied, blank) 1 2-52. With 13 chromolithographed plates by Simonau & Toovey after Catlin.
Bound by Edmonds and Remnants of London (their ticket to the rear paste-down) in the publisher’s beveled green cloth, paneled in blind (back) and gilt (front), with the title and author gilt at center. Green coated end-papers. All edges of the text-block gilt.
The head and tail strengthened, with some losses. Splits at the corners, with some rubbing at the lower edge. Lightly and evenly tanned, with the odd sprays of foxing. An unusually fresh example. Bookseller’s ticket of Friedrich Klincksieck to the front paste-down. Ex-libris of “N.C Young” (completed in graphite) to the front paste-down. An ink ownership inscription (?) dated 10 September 1958 to the upper edge of the front paste-down. A clipped and mounted newspaper article (June 6 1884) about “An Indian Snake Dance” laid in at the front.
George Catlin (1796–1872) was born in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania and studied law before turning to portraiture. Following in the footsteps of Lewis and Clark and Zebulon Pike, Catlin traveled to the American interior and described and depicted the Native Americans, particularly members and leaders of the Plains tribes. Although the “Indian Gallery,” a touring exhibition of hundreds of his paintings as well as objects collected, is Catlin’s best-known work, the present work was without doubt his most controversial.
O-kee-pa is a sensational(ist?) account of the annual ceremony (Okipa) observed by the Mandan tribe, who lived and live along the upper Missouri in modern North Dakota. Sometimes described as a buffalo dance, it is a much broader ritual reenactment of creation and personification of divine forces. Elements of extreme devotion, viz. fasting, scarification and ritual sex, stunned the western world and contributed to characterizations of savagery. Because the Mandan were devastated by the smallpox epidemic of 1837 — diminishing their number from well over 10,000 to fewer than 200 — it is difficult to verify Catlin’s account, though other Western witnesses to the ceremony corroborate its main features. The rare “[Folium reservatum.]” was printed in Philadelphia (where Lippincott published sheets from the London edition with a cancelled title-leaf) in an (estimated) edition of 25 as a supplement (containing the most sexually explicit parts of the ceremony) to the published work.
Newton C. Young (1862–1923) was a Justice of the Supreme Court of North Dakota from 1898, and its Chief Justice 1903–1906. Born in Mount Pleasant, IA and educated at Iowa State, Young moved to Dakota Territory in 1887 and practiced law through its statehood in 1889. Doubtless his interest in the Mandan history of North Dakota spurred his acquisition of the book, though there is no record of his having traveled to Paris. Irving Whitemore Robbins Jr. (1919–1995) was a Bay Area bibliophile who had a long relationship with Stanford, where a fund for special collections is named in his honor. His library was sold by PBA 21 March 1996 (the present volume lot 55); his bookplate had been laid in but is no longer present.
Field 262; Howes C 244 (“b”); Sabin 11543.
Item #JLR0841
Price: $8,000