PAINTED HIDE CA. 1900 BY SHOSHONE ARTIST CADZI CODY

PAINTED HIDE CA. 1900 BY SHOSHONE ARTIST CADZI CODY Page 1

PAINTED HIDE CA. 1900 BY SHOSHONE ARTIST CADZI CODY OBJECT: Shoshone Hide Painting DATE: Late 19th Century to ca. 1900 ARTIST: Cadzi Cody, also known as Codsiogo (ca. 1866 1912) PROVENANCE: Collected by Ervin Franklin Cheney (1844 1922) and descended through the family of Esther Elizabeth Cheney Nalls to Elizabeth Jane Nalls Freedman (1920 2008), mother of Ben Freedman. OBJECT DESCRIPTION A brightly painted, softly tanned elk hide measuring 72 inches by 68 inches at the widest points. The central image depicts both the Sun Dance and the Grass Dance. The Sun Dance is represented by a buffalo head hung between a forked tree surmounted by an eagle, and the Grass Dance is represented by men wearing war bonnets. Framing the two ceremonies is the illustration of a buffalo hunt. The artist Cadzi Cody depicts the chase, the kill, and the butcher of the animals, combining historical and contemporary narratives. Buffalo had been eradicated from this region by the 1880s, and Cadzi Cody hide painting (detail) the Shoshone people, depicted here with bows and arrows, had been using modern rifles for quite some time. The buffalo head and eagle motif is used only in the Sun Dance, a restricted sacred ceremony performed to ensure long life. Although the ceremony was popular with anthropologists and tourists, the United States government took a dim view, and Cadzi Cody may have deliberately depicted the buffalo head to attract paying clients but placed it within the context of a more politically acceptable Wolf Dance. This hide painting probably pre-dates 1900 before the great Chief Washakie died because Shoshone hide paintings produced after 1900 typically show a long war bonnet hanging by itself on the Sun Dance tree. According to one traditional account, such a bonnet represents the presence of the deceased Chief Washakie. Although hide paintings were often created with stencils to expedite the process while maintaining quality, this Cadzi Cody specimen surpasses stenciling, with exquisite attention to detail for example, in the hooves of the horses and buffalo. It is also one of only three that were personally gifted by Chief Washakie, and it was given by Washakie to the collector Ervine F. Cheney. Page 2

ARTIST BIOGRAPHY Artist Cadzi Cody Source: http://www.windriverhistory.org Cadzi Cody (ca. 1866 1912) was one of the most prolific Shoshone artists at the turn of the last century. His work shows the influence of previous artistic eras by including both storytelling and historical accounts. By the time Cadzi Cody was producing these painted hides, the Shoshone had already been removed to the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming. Many native traditions had been all but eradicated by the federal government the Sun Dance was outlawed in 1904. Cadzi Cody, however, sought to maintain tradition while incorporating America s romance with the West. While he used the buffalo hunt as the subject of a majority of his paintings, the native symbolism of the spirit of the buffalo in the Sun Dance and the celebrations held at the Grass Dance were also present but less of the focus, which allowed the overall imagery to appeal to the anglo market. Eastern Shoshone artist Codsiogo (mountain flower in Shoshone, pronounced co-see-ko) was born about 1866. He was listed as Cod-si-ogo or Cad-zei-go in the 1900 Wind River Agency census, but he was also known as Katsakodi or Charlie Katsakodi. Cadzi Cody is the name given to him by Euroamericans in 1900. His artwork was transitional, as he adapted traditional materials and art forms familiar from prehistoric petroglyphs, pictographs, and decorated leather goods but modified these to the needs of the Early Reservation Period that served as a bridge to modern Native American art. As a youth during the 1870s, Cadzi Cody certainly learned the skills of a hunter and warrior and most likely was expected to provide for and protect his family after reaching adulthood. However, he also learned how to produce artistic and material goods that were in demand by white people. All of Cadzi Cody s hides were produced during the turn-of-the-century Wind River Reservation Period, with the earliest hides depicting the tasayuge or the Wolf Dance (War Dance) with a United States flag at the center. Cadzi Cody s imagery quickly evolved, most likely in response to consumer demand or perhaps to avoid using spiritually powerful icons for public sale. By the mid-1890s, Shoshone artists including Cadzi Cody used a combination of stenciling and freehand art to create their dancers, bison, and horses on elk hides. Stenciling expedited the process while maintaining quality. Earth and natural vegetable colors made from charcoal, red ochre, and chalk that were used in earlier hides were replaced by brighter commercial paints and dyes obtained Page 3

from white traders. The once hand-tanned buffalo hides were replaced by commercially tanned deer, elk, or even cow hides. This was an era of terrible poverty and starvation on the Wind River Reservation. Cadzi Cody s artistic skill both maintained long-cherished cultural traditions and helped support his family. Cadzi Cody died in 1910 or 1912 of unknown causes. Over twenty of his paintings survive in museums and private collections. HISTORIC CONTEXT Painting has been a long-standing tradition among the American Indians of the Great Plains. The remains of painted images or pictographs from centuries ago appear on the ledges and walls of cliffs throughout the region. At the same time that these artists were painting images on rock, they were undoubtedly also painting animal hides. However, the earliest surviving hide painting dates to about 1805. Both men and women painted on hides, but generally women painted geometric designs on rawhide containers called parfleches and on robes, while Cadzi Cody hide painting (detail) men painted pictorial scenes on clothing, shields, and tipi covers and liners. The pictorial scenes painted by men often conveyed biographical details such as personal accomplishments, heroic deeds, or specific battles in which they had participated. The details of a man s robe might tell others how many enemies he had killed or how many times he had counted coup an act of bravery such as touching your enemy without killing or how many horses he had captured during raids. The primary means of passing on history and tradition among American Indians was through oral tradition. However, in lieu of a written language, pictorial painting was a form of record-keeping. In addition to the biographical details on their shirts, robes, and tipis, most Plains peoples had an appointed historian who painted a symbol on a hide each year to represent the most important event that had occurred. These hides were called winter counts. By Cadzi Cody s time, many of the Shoshone people were confined to the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming and to other reservations in the West. Their traditional way of life was behind them. The Sun Dance had been outlawed by the United States government, which viewed it as a threat to order. The men no longer had the freedom to live as nomadic hunters on the prairie, and the bison were nearly extinct. Therefore, the only heroic deeds or exploits they were able to paint were those they remembered from life before the reservation. A few artists, such as Cadzi Cody, were resourceful and adapted the traditional art of hide painting to appeal to the taste of Euroamerican buyers. The pictorial paintings of Plains men were in demand by non-indian visitors to the reservations. By producing items for the market, Cadzi Cody was able to earn much-needed income and thereby survive in difficult times. Page 4

Ervin and Matilda Cheney with their children Esther, Mabel, Emma, and Ervin. Source: Lander, by Carol Thiesse, Traci Foulz, and Joe Spriggs, Arcadia Publishing, 2010 COLLECTOR BIOGRAPHY It is often said that men like Ervin F. Cheney invented the Old West, but it seems just as likely that the Old West invented him. His life reads like a script for a Hollywood movie, beginning in the carnage of the Civil War and running through all the phases of territorial pioneer life in Wyoming from Indian wars to gold fever, from ranching to territorial government. Born in upstate New York in 1844, Cheney served in the Civil War before being sent west in May 1865 to protect the mail and rail lines near Fort Sedgwick in northeastern Colorado. He eventually settled in Lander, Wyoming, with his wife, Matilda Jane Henry in 1878. They purchased a ranch on the lower north fork of the Big Popo Agie in 1901, running cattle until he retired in 1920. On the ranch, Cheney employed many Shoshone Indians as laborers and cowboys, and the Cheneys befriended the legendary leader of the Eastern Shoshone, Chief Washakie, who became a frequent visitor. At Washakie s death, Cheney served as an honorary pall bearer at Washakie s full military service. Cheney was elected state assemblyman in 1887 and served as Sweetwater County Commissioner and Clerk of the District Court three times. He also served twice in the U.S. Land Office in Lander. Cheney died on September 29, 1922, and Matilda died on October 21, 1947. When I was a little girl, Indians usually Shoshone often worked for my folks doing whatever they could, said Cheney s daughter Mabel Wyoming Cheney Moudy, who graduated from the University of Wyoming in 1900. Father knew they needed money and wanted to help in any way Page 5

he could. Chief Washakie was a good friend of our family and often came to our house. Many a meal he ate with us. I have a leather quirt he made for my father. All of we children wore Indian moccasins around home. They were comfortable and much easier to get than shoes for small children. I talked Indian before I talked English. I do not remember but very little of it now. STATEMENT OF NEED The University of Wyoming Art Museum has a collection of over 675 objects of ethnographic art that continues to grow. The most important group is the James R. Nolan Collection of 234 Native American works of art, including kachinas, baskets, pottery, and other items. The Nolan Collection is complemented by a rich collection of textile arts, primarily Navajo and Southwestern rugs in a variety of sizes. In 2008, an assessment of the collection noted that this collection should definitely continue to grow with additions by the important Native American Cadzi Cody hide painting (detail) contemporary artists in all art forms. If the opportunity arises, examples of older artifacts of the same types would serve as a wonderful comparison for both study and exhibitions. A work by Cadzi Cody (ca. 1866 1912) would fill a significant hole in the Plains American Indian collection at the UW Art Museum. Since the majority of the objects in the Nolan Collection are primarily Southwestern, the addition of this hide painting by one of the most prolific Shoshone artists would allow the museum to further its collections of American Indian artists from the Wyoming area, giving students, faculty, scholars, and the general public a regional view of native traditions. The cultural and historical significance of this particular hide would be important to further connect with faculty and students on campus. Cadzi Cody sought with this hide to preserve native traditions despite living on the Wind River Reservation, and the iconic buffalo and Sun Dance imagery could be integrated into the academic curriculum of departments such as History, Anthropology, Fine Art, and American Indian Studies the museum already works closely with these departments. The addition of the exquisite painted hide by Cadzi Cody would anchor the museum s Northern Plains Indian collection and encourage additional objects to be gifted to this small but growing special collection at the University of Wyoming Art Museum. Proceeds of the sale of the hide will be used to establish an endowment for the Betty Freedman scholarship fund through the University of Wyoming Foundation. Page 6

FAIR MARKET VALUE: $165,000 PURCHASE PRICE FOR UW: $125,000 SOURCES: Wyoming State Historic Preservation Office; appraisal by Barbara H. Stone, Art International Resources LLC; Cowan s Auctions item description; description of Cadzi Cody s Scenes of Plains Indian Life ca. 1880 at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts; research by Joe Horse Capture, associate curator, Minneapolis Institute of Arts; Lander, by Carol Thiesse, Traci Foulz, and Joe Spriggs, Arcadia Publishing, 2010; Find a Grave information for Ervin Franklin Cheney and Matilda Henry Cheney. Cadzi Cody hide painting (detail) Page 7