A man from the Mandan tribe is looking up at two idols placed on wooden sticks; a village in the background. Aquatint by S. Himely after Ch. Bodmer, ca. 1843.

"Buffalo skins with white spots are likewise highly valued by the Mandans but there is a race of these animals with very soft silky hair, which has a beautiful gold lustre when in the sunshine : these are, likewise, highly prized, and sold for ten or fifteen dollars, and, sometimes, for the value of a horse. Besides the white buffalo skins which are offered in sacrifice and hung on poles, there are, in the vicinity of the villages of the Mandans and Manitaries, other strange figures on high poles, as represented in Plate XXV. These figures are composed of skin, grass, and twigs, which, it seems, represent the sun and moon, perhaps, also, the lord of life, and the first man. The Indians resort to them when they wish to petition for anything, and sometimes howl and lament for days and weeks together."--Wied, Travels in the interior of North America, loc. cit.