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Every work of art has a story behind it and, as such, each has at least one story to tell. Usually there are more. Our cover, for example, is an image by Frank Rinehart and/or Adolph Muhr. The subject is identifi ed as “Yellow Magpie, Arapahoe.” The negative number and the copyright date indicate that this was not taken at the 1898 “Indian Congress” of the Trans-Mississippi and International Exposition in Omaha, Nebraska, as were many of the Rinehart portraits, but rather the Greater America Exposition held on the same fairgrounds the following year (see the Portfolio section of this issue). He wears a fringed hide shirt in the Kiowa Apache style and the hawk feathers in his hair are likely a personal charm, according to researcher Winfi eld Coleman. His rattle, eagle feather fan, and beaded neck pouch are ceremonial paraphernalia that relate to the peyote cult, a vision-seeking religious practice that also emphasizes moral living, sobriety, and social responsibility. At the time this photo was taken, the peyote cult was a relatively recent innovation that started among the Mescalero Apache, who themselves had adapted it from far older traditions, some involving peyote and some mescal beans. It spread throughout the cultures of the Southwest and the Plains in the 1880s, becoming one of the most prevalent religious practices shared across cultural boundaries and supplanting the mescal bean cult, which you can read about in the Object History section of this issue. Coleman notes that his mode of dress, including the otter pelts wrapping his braids, indicates that he was a traditionalist during a time of great cultural change. That might be the end of the story this photo could tell us were it not for the fact that this man appears in several other Rinehart/Muhr photos from 1899, but in these he is identifi ed at Clever Warden (correctly, Cleaver Warden—accurate documentation was not Rinehart’s strong suit). One of the better known Arapaho men of his time, his proper name was Hitunena, which in Arapaho means Gros Ventre, the Algonquin-speaking tribe who were their neighbors. He was born around 1867 and graduated from the United States Indian Industrial School in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, in 1887, profi cient in reading and writing English. He was photographed by William Dinwiddie in 1895 as part of a Cheyenne and Arapaho delegation, by Charles Milton Bell in the same context, by James Mooney in 1893, and by De Lancey W. Gill in 1898 and again in 1909. He served as a cultural informant and translator, working with the likes of Mooney, George Dorsey, Alfred Kroeber, and Truman Michelson, and he engaged in his own documentary work, through both writing and meticulous drawing. This included recording the traditions of Arapaho women, something that white anthropologists lacked the access to do. He was married to a Southern Cheyenne woman, Traveler, aka Eva Rogers-Warden, and he was an infl uential fi gure in the peyote cult. Photo portraits tell stories that generally are easy to understand. Sculptures often need to be listened to a little more closely. Senufo maternities, for example, appear to be simple genre fi gures. However, these fi gures most likely reference the Ancient Mother, the founder of the matrilinear succession of some Senufo subgroups and the central fi gure in a complex male initiation cycle lasting two decades. During this, she suckles shapeless novices with “the milk of knowledge” and, as Skip Cole tells us in his thoughtful article on African maternities in these pages, delivers them back to society as fully formed men. The central theme of The Inner Eye, a show of African masterpieces currently at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and also profi led in this issue, relates to seeing (and being seen). Every object in it has had a unique trajectory, and each has its own stories to tell, all of which are fascinating. Jonathan Fogel EDITORIAL Our cover shows a portrait by Frank A. Rinehart and/or Adolph F. Muhr titled Yellow Magpie, Arapahoe, 1899. Platinum print. Approximately 7 x 9 inches. Greater America Exposition, Omaha, Nebraska, 1899. Rinehart neg. 1392. Courtesy of the Trustees of the Boston Public Library.


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