wolf eared caps

[Rod]

Isaac hasn't mentioned it, but he's written an excellent overview of the eared/horned cap or hood.

frenchinwisconsin.yolasite.com/my-blog.php

These things seem to show up everywhere, from the east coast to the Rockies, in alot of different styles.

Rod

[isaac]

Also, Nathan Kobuck is playing with the same stuff in the east. He did a blog on these caps and on trapping just after mine... buffalotrace1765.blogspot.com/2013/01/adventure-time-beaver-trapping-and.html



One weird thing though... these show up ALL over as caps on Indians and Metis, BUT... other than Miller, there are SOOOOO few mentions on white dudes, at least in the amount that Miller shows. I really wonder if Miller wasn't exaggerating the use of these to make a more "wild" hunterish look. Of course, speaking against Miller is near blasphemous.

[isaac]

Added another blog with my recreation on it. It is an attempt at something more Great Lakes and beyond.

frenchinwisconsin.yolasite.com/my-blog/hunters-hoods-my-recreation-

[Rod]

Of course, this could get into the whole ratio of 'white guys' vs. 'everyone else' in the western fur trade. I still tend to believe that, while guys like Bridger or Fitzpatrick may have stolen the spotlight, guys like John Grey or Pierre Tavinitagon may have been more numerous. If so, maybe Miller's ratio of guys wearing eared caps isn't so far off?

I do agree that Miller has to be used with caution, and sometimes a heaping spoonfull of salt......I doubt there were as many bare-breasted Indian women cavorting about as what he paints. As always, when he painted a particular subject has alot to do with it, too.

And Miller romantisize his subjects? C'mon, Ike, you know he'd never do that............... ;D Where's Bodmer with his near photographic quality when we need him? By the way, while we're talking caps/hoods, one of my favorite Bodmer paintings is of Nothing But Gunpowder, setting off for a late fall hunt at Ft. Union. I have got to make that badger skin hood he's wearing. Unfortunately, I can't find an online image of him to post here.


Rod

[isaac]

Jan 30, 2013 11:37:20 GMT -7 Rod said:

By the way, while we're talking caps/hoods, one of my favorite Bodmer paintings is of Nothing But Gunpowder, setting off for a late fall hunt at Ft. Union. I have got to make that badger skin hood he's wearing. Unfortunately, I can't find an online image of him to post here.


Rod

Here you go...

[Rod]

Thanks!


Rod

[beaudro]

I liked reading up on this guy...books.google.com/books?id=ZY4SSPuxaHcC&pg=PA32&lpg=PA32&dq=nothing+but+gun+powder+bodmer&source=bl&ots=u9OPT_Bbp4&sig=9HmfGl9GcDKTLp8TSphvxMZvgBY&hl=en&sa=X&ei=B6AMUeHcL5OnqwGMuYGYBQ&ved=0CDAQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=nothing%20but%20gun%20powder%20bodmer&f=false

At Fort Union, a major fur trading post at the junction of the Yellowstone and Missouri Rivers, Maximilian and Bodmer rested briefly and gathered momentum for the final leg of the return trip downriver to St. Louis. It was here on Octorber 21, 1833, as the cold and snow of the approaching winter moved across the Plains, that the prince recorded the encounter with the Assiniboine warrior who inspired this water color:
Several Assiniboins [sic], whom we had not seen before, arrived successively.... Amonth them was a man wearing his winter dress, having on his head a badgers skin, by way of a cap, and gloves, which are very rare among the Indians. His name was Pasesick-Kaskutau (Nothing but Gunpowder), and Mr. Bodmer took an admirable full length portrait of him.