NO. 7 SOHON's portraits of INDIANS — EWERS 63 



The long forelock, falling over the center of the forehead to the nose, 

 was apparently an aboriginal style of hairdress among the Indians of 

 many tribes. George Catlin and Karl Bodmer depicted it in many 

 of their portraits and scenes among the tribes of the Northern Plains 

 in the 1830's. (Wissler, 1910, p. 152.) Sohon illustrated it in his 

 portraits of Cayuse, Nez Perce, and Blackfoot leaders in 1855. The 

 style became obsolete among the Flathead before 1891. The peculiar 

 visored trade caps, worn by many of Sohon's subjects, were a style 

 of headgear which was in great favor among the Flathead in the 

 mid-nineteenth century. These caps were shown in less detail in the 

 scenes of Flathead life drawn by Leather Nicholas Point a decade 

 earlier. (De Smet, 1847, plates facing pp. 119 and 151.) They were 

 also worn by Cayuse and Spokan Indians sketched by Sohon in 1855. 



A similar cap was worn by a Red River half-breed drawn by 

 Frank B. Mayer in 1851. (Mayer, 1932, p. 58.) The origin of these 

 caps is not known. This distribution suggests that they may have 

 been obtained from Hudson's Bay Company traders. \'ictor's tall 

 hat and Iroquois Peter's unusual cap of gray trade cloth are other 

 examples of nonaboriginal headgear in use at the time. The shirts 

 with attached, turned-over collars, and buttons at the neck certainly 

 show white influence. Catholic influence appears in the crucifixes 

 worn by some of these Indians The only articles of traditional cloth- 

 ing illustrated in the portraits are the buffalo robes worn as outer 

 garments by Moise and Alexander. 



Hazard Stevens, who was present at the Walla Walla and Blackfoot 

 Treaty Councils of 1855, when Sohon drew a number of Indian 

 portraits, observed that Gustavus Sohon "had great skill in making 

 expressive likenesses." Presumably the Flathead, Pend d'Oreille, 

 and Iroquois portraits, sketched from life by Mr. Sohon a year earlier, 

 possess that same quality. With the single exception of the unsigned 

 portrait of Big Canoe, which appears so labored and crude as hardly 

 to be the work of the same artist, Sohon's pencil technique is charac- 

 terized by clean, sure lines, and a very realistic three-dimensional 

 quality. His portraits of Flathead leaders show the prevalence of 

 "good-looking" men in that tribe which was noted in the observations 

 of Dr. Suckley of the Pacific Railway Survey. (Report of Explora- 

 tions, etc., i860, vol. I, p. 292.) His Iroquois portraits show the 

 characteristic long-faccdncss of those people. At his best, in the por- 

 traits of the Flathead leader, Pelchimo, and the three Iroquois, Sohon's 

 portraits deserve to rank with the finest works of white artists who 

 visited the western Indian country in pre-reservation days. 



