Around this time of year, many North Dakotans are hunkering down to enjoy the winter holidays. If you were Prince Alexander Phillip Maximilian of Wied-Neuwied in the winter of 1833-34, you would be spending your days with the Indigenous people of the Great Plains, well before the region became North Dakota.
Maximilian was born on September 23rd, 1782, in Neuwied, the capital of the District of Neuwied. It is a town in the north of the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate and lies on the east bank of the Rhine. Being born towards the end of the European Enlightenment, Maximilian befriended two of the period’s major figures. He studied biological sciences under Johann Friedrich Blumenbach, a major comparative anthropologist; and his mentor was German intellectual Alexander von Humboldt. At 18, he joined the Prussian Army during the Napoleonic Wars, rising to rank of major until given a leave of absence in 1815. After this, he began leading an expedition to southeast Brazil, which he had to abandon in 1817 due to his precarious health.
15 years later in 1832, he ventured to the Great Plains of the Dakota Territories, accompanied by Swiss painter Karl Bodmer. They traveled up the Missouri River, spending the winter of 1833-34 with the Mandan. In contrast to many other newcomers to the region, Prince Maximillian was considered sympathetic toward the Indigenous Tribes, most notably the Mandan and Hidatsa. He also recorded experiences with nomadic tribes such as the Dakota, Assiniboine, Plains Cree, Gros Ventres, and Blackfoot. Maximillian worked to gather information, while Bodmer made accurate illustrations. Together they produced a book, “Journey to the Interior of North America.” Bodmer’s watercolors and Maximillian’s recordings are considered one of the most accurate documentations of the tribes they met, considered especially important because they were gathered before the tribes were affected by the diseases and war that made them leave their settlements.
In 1845, the American Philosophical Society elected Maximillian as a member, honoring his efforts to capture the life of the Indigenous people of the Great Plains.
Dakota Datebook written by Lucid Thomas
Sources:
