The seven men depicted on this bowl (RMV 2294-1) are clearly warriors, wearing scalp-lock war shirts. The guns indicate war trophies, and these are a common part of war record paintings, as are traditional Indian weapons (bows, clubs), shields, feathered lances, and horses. The seven men could either be members of Bear Chief's war party, or a group of enemies he confronted in a battle. The guns are probably war booty. Except in one case, the six human heads are only depicted by long hair, indicating scalps. The facial features of one may indicate a head trophy, or was meant to facilitate the interpretation of the story on the bowl. This group of figures might be related to episodes in his life-story Bear Chief told to Uhlenbeck, more particularly his and his brother Weasel Mocassin's (A'paitsikina) exploits against the Crees, Gros Ventres, and Sioux (Uhlenbeck and Tatsey 1911:70-90). The circular figure in the triangular frame could represent the buffalo hide shield that provided Bear Chief with factual and supernatural protection during his daring exploits. The frame either indicates the tripod on which powerful shields were displayed, or a hide shield case or cover (Wissler 1910:162-163). The black cross is placed next to the shield. Because of its shape and yellow outlines it probably refers to interest in Christianity by Bear Chief who attended church services at the Holy Childhood Mission, but was not a convert. He thus placed two strong spiritual symbols of his Native beliefs and western religion side by side.<BR> <BR> The first specimens of the Uhlenbeck collection are three wooden bowls:<BR> 2294-1. Round wooden dipper, drinking or serving bowl with handle, and painted pictographic designs; wood, oil paint, ink, crayon; l. 34,5 cm., incl. handle, w. 13 cm., h. 10.8 cm.; 1910-1911;<BR> 2294-2. Rectangular/oblong wooden bowl with handle, and painted designs; wood, oil paint; l. 35 cm., incl. handle, w. 15 cm., h. 11.5 cm.; 1910-1911;<BR> 2294-3. Wooden bowl with painted designs; wood, crayon, l. 30 cm., h. 10 cm.; 1910-1911.<BR> <BR> The bowls were carved and painted during Uhlenbeck's fieldwork by Bear Chief (Nínoxkyàio, alt. Nínauxkyàsio; RMV 1935), formerly a prominent war leader. The headman believed to be protected from enemies by a magical shirt, decorated with perforated designs and painted red crosses, obtained from Big Plume when the latter was too old to go on the warpath. Bear Chief was among Blackfoot leaders visiting Washington D.C. and Carlisle, Pennsylvania in 1892 to negotiate land rights and consider the relevance of the prominent Indian boarding school to Blackfoot children. In 1903 he was again in the capital to independently brief authorities on reservation conditions (Ewers 1958:192-193; Farr 1984:37,64-65). Bear Chief and his (second) wife Elk-Yells-In-The-Water established fictional kinship ties with the Uhlenbecks, regarding the professor as their brother, and Willie as their sister-in-law. Mrs. Bear Chief was later a principal informant of John C. Ewers (1958:ix).<BR> <BR> The Uhlenbecks obtained the bowls during a visit on June 10, 1911, to the log cabin of Bear Chief. Mrs. Uhlenbeck described the occasion of the gift as follows: "Bear Chief gets up, goes to the wall and takes out a little grimy' looking bag. It is carefully tied together. He pulls of the little cord and takes out three wooden artifacts, which he brings me with great satisfaction. … It is a big wooden drinking bowl with a stem cut out of wood and also an even bigger bowl for soup and a shell-shaped bowl for bread, also hollowed out of wood. All pieces have colorful drawings: of Indians, scalps, tipis, guns, etc. … I leave my presents in his cabin until our suitcases arrive" (Uhlenbeck-Melchior 1911; Eggermont-Molenaar 2005:38-39).<BR> <BR> The Blackfoot used to make wooden bowls for serving food from burls they found on trees, preferably ash or cottonwood. After the burl was cut out, the outside of the bowl was trimmed and fashioned into the desired shape. Subsequently, the interior was chiseled out, and its surface hardened and smoothed by rolling red hot stones inside it. Metal tools soon replaced stone tools for such difficult tasks. Sometimes these containers were stained with mineral pigment. The finishing touch consisted of application of a layer of buffalo grease that was polished with a piece of hide. It was women rather than men who made these bowls. As their manufacture required much effort and time, they were soon displaced when western tin, enamel and porcelain wares became available through white traders. Clark Wissler who carried out fieldwork among the Montana Blackfoot in the early years of the twentieth century was unable to collect any original wooden bowls. Only in ceremonials, especially those centering on the medicine pipe bundle, the use of wooden bowls continued to a limited extent, although in this sphere machine-turned wooden bowls obtained in trade replaced the Native-made specimens over time. Blackfoot ceremonial bowls tended to be largely undecorated with sculpture, as the manufacture of wooden effigy bowls was restricted to the Siouan-speaking groups and the Pawnees (Wissler 1910:28; Ewers 1945:58-59; 1986:169-170; Walton 1985:185,187). <BR> <BR> The Blackfoot were frequently at war with their neighbors: Flatheads and Crows to the south, Assiniboins, Crees, and Sioux to the west. Indian men painted pictographic records of their war exploits on skin robes and lodge linings, later on canvas and muslin supplied by Indian traders. Blackfoot pictography is simple in style, more informative than aesthetically pleasing as John C. Ewers has pointedly remarked. The narrative structure usually remains oblique, as the figures are often spread across the surface without apparent narrative design, resulting in "pictorial shorthand." However, singular motifs, as well as groups of single designs, readily convey messages that were understood by tribal members, as well as nearby tribes. Severed heads, horses, and weapons usually stood for scalps, animals and arms taken from enemies. Some such paintings contain pictographic signatures of their maker (Ewers 1945:20-24; 1983; Walton 1985:222-230). The Blackfoot refer to pictographs and writing by the same term: sinàksin, meaning "made marks" (Uhlenbeck 1930:66,255).<BR> <BR> The painted designs on bowl 2294-1 include seven human figures, five guns, a cross, a shield, six scalps or human heads with long hair. The designs are applied with black oil paint, black ink, and red, blue, and yellow crayon. The outer sides of bowl 2294-2 exhibit painted designs of 21 tipis. On both sides of where the handle is connected to the bowl, a design possibly indicating a shield with scalps hanging from it is painted. The tipis around the sides probably represent a camp circle. The scenes painted on the flaring sides of bowl 2294-3 depict an encampment consisting of three tipis, a number of Indian men and women in a file, and what appears to be a battle scene, involving two mounted warriors and two white people.<BR> <BR> It is tempting to interpret the pictographic paintings on Bear Chief's bowls by trying to relate these to known events in his life, some of which were recorded by Uhlenbeck when he wrote down memories of war exploits. In addition to these bowls, Bear Chief's tipi, covered with picture writing, was acquired by Clark Wissler in 1903 and is preserved at the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH cat.nr. 50/4485). Unfortunately, the notes on the iconography the anthropologist took at the time are lost (Brownstone 2005). Blackfoot iconography is an idiosyncratic form of history and therefore only partially understood by all tribal members, as Ewers (1983:56) has pointed out. Themes such as numbers of enemies and kind of war trophies are commonly identified by most, but the identity of neither the pictographer nor his enemies is revealed in most paintings. Sometimes peculiarities of dress or hairstyle do reveal this information. A cautious approach to the interpretation of the pictographic paintings on Bear Chief's bowl should therefore be employed.<BR> (Hovens 2008)<BR> <BR> vervaardigd rond 1910-11 door Bear Chief