L.R.298.b.2, 5(183)

Half-length full-face portrait of Otter Robe, an Atsina. His biography is given in volume 5 of The North American Indian, p.182: 'Born in 1851 near Fort Benton. When sixteen years of age he joined a war-party against the Piegan, but on this first expedition he gained no honors. On another raid against the same people he counted a first coup. A party of Atsina, of which he was a member, camped one night near a war-party of Sioux, not knowing of their presence. At dawn the enemy charged, but were driven back, and during the skirmish he counted another first coup. A party of Piegan stole some horses; the Atsina followed, overtaking the enemy and forcing them to abandon their booty; during the fight he killed one Piegan. On another expedition against the same tribe, Otter Robe killed one with the stock of his gun and counted a first coup. In another battle with the Piegan, he rushed in, pulled a warrior from his horse, and killed him with his knife. When a young man he fasted two days and two nights by a river, and had a vision in which a tree became transformed to a warrior who told him he was to obtain many honors. The faster was instructed to paint as was the spirit - yellow on the temples, with a streak of red across the forehead - and to wear a strip of otter-fur around his scalp-lock. Otter Robe married at the age of thirty.'