Mi-néek-ee-súnk-te-ka, Mink, a Beautiful Girl

George Catlin, born Wilkes-Barre, PA 1796-died Jersey City, NJ 1872 · 1832

According to George Catlin, Mink posed in a “mountain-sheep skin dress, ornamented with porcupine-quills, beads, and elk's teeth.” He described the Mandans as “people whose complexions appear as light as half breeds; and amongst the women particularly, there are many whose skins are almost white, with the most pleasing symmetry and proportion of features; with hazel, with grey, and with blue eyes,---with mildness and sweetness of expression, and excessive modesty of demeanour, which render them exceedingly pleasing and beautiful.” Catlin painted the girl’s portrait at a Mandan village in 1832. (Catlin, Letters and Notes, vol. 1, no. 13, 1841, reprint 1973, and 1848 Catalogue, Catlin’s Indian Gallery, SAAM online exhibition)