Book Description
for An Indian Winter by Russell Freedman and Karl Bodmer
From the Publisher
"In 1833, a German prince and a Swiss painter journeyed up the wild Missouri River into the heart of Indian country. They spent the winter among the People of the First Man - the Mandan Indians - in what is today North Dakota. Prince Alexander Philipp Maximilian kept a detailed journal. Karl Bodmer painted dozens of meticulously accurate portraits, landscapes, and scenes of everyday life. Drawing on this unique word-and-picture record, Russell Freedman tells the story of the two Europeans' adventures and the Native Americans who befriended them. The flourishing culture of the Mandans and their neighbors, the Hidatsas - their family life, their dances and ceremonies, their roles as hunters, warriors, and farmers - are vividly described against the backdrop of a rigorous winter on the high plains. In 1837, a devastating smallpox epidemic all but destroyed the Mandans and Hidatsas. During the 1860s and 1870s, their traditional way of life vanished completely as the white man slaughtered their buffalo and seized their land. Maximilian's eyewitness accounts and Bodmer's haunting paintings, presented here with consummate skill by Newbery Medalist Freedman, offer an unsurpassed portrait of the vibrant peoples who once lived along the upper Missouri." --
Publisher description retrieved from Google Books.