Mato Topé (ca. 1800-1837), or Four Bears as he was better known by white Americans, was the second chief of the Mandan tribe—residing on banks of the Missouri River in present day North Dakota—in the first half of the nineteenth century. Four Bears was known as a strong warrior to the Mandan people, most known for his victory over a Cheyenne chief in hand to hand combat. Four Bears’ portrait painted by Swedish artist, Karl Bodmer would “play an important part in the basic understanding of many non-Indians concerning the ‘Noble Savage’ of the Western Plains.”[1]
Like many plains Indians, Mato Topé’s success as a warrior was crucial to his respect as a leader. To Mandan males, “war was the path to status, and a warrior was expected to display his war record publicly and truthfully.”[2] This would not differ for Four Bears and he would display many of his achievements as a warrior to his people as well as white travelers and settlers. His greatest victory as a warrior was the hand to hand combat in which he killed a Cheyenne chief which he would later paint for Karl Bodmer and Prince Maximilian in an explanation of the fight. Many of Four Bears’ battles were documented on a buffalo robe—like many Mandans did to record military events—that he seemed to have carried to new levels[2] by wearing it on his back. The robe depicted many of his battles including the killing of the Cheyenne chief, the avenging of another killed Mandan, a large battle between the Mandans and Assiniboine tribes, and the charging of the Assiniboines where he would earn his name “Four Bears” as it is said he charged them “like four bears.”[2]
Early on and throughout his life, Mato Topé “acted as a go-between for white traders and as diplomat to other tribes.”[3] His most known encounter with white men was with Swiss artist Karl Bodmer and German scientist Prince Maximilian of Wied in the winter of 1833-34. Bodmer and Maximilian would paint portraits of Four Bears that would later act as windows in the lives of plains Indians to white Americans and Europeans. In the last speech he would give before his death in the summer of 1837, Mato Topé would describe his relationship with white men saying he once loved them and had protected them from the harsh words of his people but upon his death had seen them as deceitful traders as they had helped spread the smallpox epidemic that would end the lives of many Mandan people.
After the smallpox epidemic that took place on the central plains in 1831, the US government would begin vaccinating Indian tribes along the Missouri river but this program would never reach the Mandans along with two other tribes. In June of 1837, a steamboat would stop at the Mandan villages dropping off the smallpox disease. Although there is no official record of how many people died during this epidemic, “one report lists only 31 survivors out of the 1600 Mandans.”[2] In July of 1837, Four Bears would find himself in the arms of death due to smallpox but would not go without the last word against the whites. In his death speech, Four Bears would turn against his once allied white men, calling them dogs. “Listen well what I have to say, as it will be the last time you will hear Me. think of your Wives, Children, Brothers, Sisters, Friends, and in fact all that you hold dear, are all Dead, or Dying, with their faces all rotten, caused by those dogs the whites, think of all that My friends, and rise all together and Not leave one of them alive. The 4 Bears will act his part…”[4] Mato Topé died on July 30, 1837 of smallpox on the same day of his death speech, leaving behind explicit instructions for his fellow Indian people to fight the whites and keep themselves safe from their deceit.
