A Móra Ferenc Múzeum Évkönyve: Studia Historiae Literarum et Artium, 4. (Szeged, 2004)
Nagy Imre: A Preliminary Report on the Friedman Kein Canvas
(02) R1C2 The same Cheyenne hero lances a pedestrian Pawnee man. The hero can be identified by the same blue and yellow painted, hair-fringed scalp shirt, the same shield with the light blue upper field, and red lower field, with the black bird in central position. He wears the single, upright eagle tail feather in his hair too. In this case, he wears leather flap leggings painted with yellow ochre. He carries a bow in his left hand, and holds his lance in his right. The horse's bridle is adorned with the same scalp and single eagle feather, while its tail is tied up, and decorated with the eagle tail feather fan. The # mark is missing from the horse's rump. The enemy figure can be identified as a Pawnee Indian because of his black moccasins, and the style of his haircut. He carries a bow and arrows in his hands, and there is a quiver across his upper body. The hero figures of scenes R1C1 and R1C2 were drawn by a single artist who did not contribute any other figures to this canvas. He is a proficient artist whose other works can be identified in one of the Cheyenne ledgers preserved in the National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC; in a large format Cheyenne drawing book, now in the Frontier Army Museum, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas; and the Cheyenne ledger in the collection of the Nebraska State Historical Society, Lincoln. We should suppose that these two scenes on the Friedman Kein Canvas might be autobiographical in character. (03)R1C3 The only work of a single artist on this canvas. Unfinished (Fig. 2). The horse differs markedly from the rest of the other animals, being a large-headed, broad necked, heavy bodied animal. The hero figure is drawn in a very simple style. The scene depicts three coups of the Cheyenne hero. The unfinished graphite pencil drawing behind the horse of the Cheyenne depicts the figures of a female and a male - probably a boy. Both figures have a „flying weapon 3 " - the feathered banner lance of the Héma 'tanóohese, or Bowstring Society - drawn to their left shoulders, indicating that the mounted Cheyenne hero counted coup on them while was riding past them to face the more dangerous enemy, the Pawnee (husband and father?) armed with a gun. The Cheyenne shoots the Pawnee in the abdomen with a pistol, and counts coup on him with his society lance. The Cheyenne carries a shield (see: detailed analysis). (04) R1C4 One of the poorest works on the canvas. The mounted Cheyenne hero lances a pedestrian Pawnee warrior, who defends himself with a bow and arrow. The Cheyenne carries a shield with a design of horizontal bisection: a dark red field below, and a brown(?) field above. The doughnut-shaped rattle of the Bowstring Warrior Society is tied below the head of the Cheyenne's lance. The Cheyenne wears a black shirt, and red breechcloth, and a long row of German-silver conchos is tied to his scalplock. (05)R2C1 A black horse on the left, and a white horse on the right, flank the war deed. The Cheyenne hero kneels beside a White civilian, seemingly with the intention of scalping 3 The „flying weapon" and its visual meaning is discussed in Nagy 1990. 103
