Menahka, or the Last of the Mandans

Paperback. Very Good. 4 ink drawings after Catlin. [31] manuscript pages on lined paper. 4to, 8 x 6 1/2 inches, original front wrapper with manuscript title, worn and stitched with ribbon; minor wear and foxing to contents. Np, circa late 19th century.


An apparently unpublished work of fiction, relating to one of the Native American tribes of the Great Plains region, the Mandans. The manuscript purports to be the story of Menahka, a Mandan chief, as told to “one of the Fur Company's traders in the Far West” who signed
his name as “X.Y.” It’s possible that Menahka and his wife Edayhush were historical figures, but we could not locate them. The two words do have basic meaning in the Mandan language: Menahka being the Mandan word for sun, and Edayhush, the Mandan word for light. Menahka is presented as being the last surviving member of the tribe, after an 1837 smallpox epidemic and attacks by Sioux enemies. While these were actual historic events, the Mandans did not entirely disappear; their few survivors joined forces with two other groups, as members of today’s Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nation in North Dakota would
attest. The four ink drawings are after the 1845 George Catlin line illustrations from “Illustrations of the Manners, Customs & Condition of the North American Indians.” “Mandan Cemetery” is from the illustration of the same name, while the portrait of Menahka is copied
closely from Catlin’s portrait titled Tal-lee. The buffalo near the end of this work is copied from one of Catlin’s more enduring images. The portrait of Edayhush has yet to be traced.