O-Kee-Pa: A Religious Ceremony: and other Customs of the Mandans

CATLIN, GEORGE

Publication Date: 1867

About this Item

CATLIN, GEORGE. O-Kee-Pa: A Religious Ceremony: and other Customs of the Mandans. London: Trubner and Co., 1867. Small 4to. vi, [2], 52 p. plus iii-p. "Folium Reservatum." 13 chromolithographed plates after Catlin by Simonau & Toovey. Publisher's purple cloth, gilt, all edges gilt. Binding lightly soiled and faded, extremities lightly worn (spine ends more so), occasional minor foxing. A very good copy of a fragile book difficult to find in fine condition. First edition, with the rare "Folium Reservatum" bound in at the rear. A presentation copy inscribed by the publisher, Nicholas Trubner ("N. Trubner"), to Thomas Scott. O-Kee-Pa was a religious ceremony practiced by the Mandan tribe that lived on the upper Missouri. It included frenzied dances and highly charged sexual pantomines, followed by barbaric torture and mortification of the flesh. Pioneer Indian bibliographer Thomas Field described the remarkable color plates as depicting the ceremony in "horrible fidelity." Catlin's text is an important survival, as the Mandans were wiped out by smallpox in 1837, shortly after Catlin's visit. The explicit details of the sexual elements of the ceremony, involving a large artificial plallus, were considered too shocking for the general public and were included in a separately issued three-page "Folium Reservatum," purportedly issued in an edition of approximately 25 copies. It is particularly desirable to have it bound together with the main text in an original publisher's binding. Nicholas Trubner was a distinguished bookseller and scholar with a great interest in publishing scholarly works. His publishing house, established in 1851, still exists. Howes C-244 ("b"); Field 262.

Seller Inventory # 13134

Bibliographic Details

• Title: O-Kee-Pa: A Religious Ceremony: and other Customs of the Mandans
• Publication Date: 1867
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Signed: Signed by Author(s)
• Seller catalogs:
  • Americana