The Bull Dance

Catlin, 1836

"The principal of [the ceremonies], which they called Bel-lohk-na-pick (the bull dance), to the strict observance of which they attributed the coming of the buffaloes to supply them with food, was one of an exceedingly grotesque and amusing character, and was danced four times on the third day.

"The chief actors in these strange scenes were eight men, with the entire skins of buffaloes thrown over them, enabling them closely to imitate the appearance and motions of those animals, as the bodies of the dancers were kept in a horizontal position, the horns and tails of the animals remaining on the skins, and the skins of the animals' heads served as masks, through the eyes of which the dancers were looking."

(Catlin 16)

N.B.: Some description provided by Catlin of the actual ceremony is not reproduced here, in respect of the fact that, if this ceremony truly occurred, its sacred nature should be honored. The portraits are Catlin's own interpretation of the ceremony.

Sources

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