Prince Maximilian and Bodmer meeting with Hidatsa Indians, Fort Clark. In 1830, a representative of the American Fur Company built Fort Clark Trading Post south of the Mandan Indian village. The first steamboat to journey up the upper-Missouri River was the Yellowstone which arrived in 1832 carrying 1, 500 gallons of goods and liquor. In 1837, the steamboat St. Peters docked at the village carrying passengers infected with smallpox, and sparking the 1837 Great Plains smallpox epidemic. The Hidatsa, called the Minnetaree by the Mandan, are a Siouan people. George Catlin and Karl Bodmer's works record the Hidatsa and Mandan societies, where were rapidly changing under pressure from encroaching settlers, infectious disease, and government restraints. Voyage dans l'interieur de l'Amerique du Nord, execute pendant les annees 1832-34. Karl Bodmer (1809-1893) was a Swiss printmaker, lithographer, painter, illustrator and hunter. |