Catlin, George (1796-1872)
O-Kee-Pa; a Religious Ceremony; and other Customs of the Mandans.

Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott & Co., 1867.

First American edition, large octavo, half-title present, illustrated with thirteen chromolithographic plates after Catlin by Simonau & Toovely, without the sexually explicit "Folium Reservatum," that appears in only a few copies; bound in contemporary full pebbled green cloth over beveled boards, stamped and blind, with a gilt compartment and titling to front board, aeg, bound by Edmonds & Remnants of London, with their ticket inside the back board, coated green endleaves, some softening at head and tail, generally very good, 10 x 6 3/4 in.

Field 262; Sabin 11543.

This important work was achieved because of Catlin's access to the Mandan people, whose Buffalo Dance Ceremony was of critical religious importance. Because the Mandan were almost completely exterminated by smallpox and other diseases introduced to their society by white intruders, little other documentation of this ceremony comes down to modern readers.