Catlin, George

O-Kee-Pa: A Religious Ceremony; and Other Customs of the Mandans. Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott & Co., 1867



8vo (10 x 6 3/4 in.; 255 x 172 mm). Half-title, 13 chromo-lithographed plates including frontispiece after Catlin by Simonau & Toovey, "Folium Reservatum" bound separately; minor marginal soiling with an occasional spot. Publisher's maroon cloth, panel design on both covers that on upper cover gilt with gilt-stamped title in central panel, edges gilt, "Folium Reservatum" in green cloth; head and foot of spine chipped, small tears at joints.

Field 262; Sabin 11543

First American Edition, with the rare 3-page "Folium Reservatum" bound separately. This account of the Mandan buffalo dance ceremony, or O-Kee-Pa, is a highly important historical survival, as the Mandans, who lived on the upper Missouri, were practically wiped out by smallpox in 1837, shortly after Catlin's visit.

O-Kee-Pa was a religious ceremony filled with frenzied dances and highly-charged sexual pantomimes, followed by torture and mortification of the flesh. The explicit details of the sexual elements of the ceremony were considered too shocking for the general public. Thus, the "Folium Reservatum" was issued in an edition of approximately 25 copies in Philadelphia in 1867.