Cha-Ki-Shi

Cha-Ki-Shi, a children’s book, by Halla Rhode (1883-1941) and Bessie Coon (1891-1942) was published in 1936 by Charles Scribner and Sons.  Around 1933 or 1934, Christian Petersen (1885-1961) was asked by his friend Halla Rhode, who was Director of Indian Studies at the Historical, Memorial and Art Department of the state of Iowa, to contribute illustrations to a children’s book. Undoubtedly, Edgar R. Harlan (1869-1941), who had been one of Petersen’s earliest patrons in Iowa and who was head of the state department, encouraged the authors to enlist Petersen as their illustrator. The book describes a year in the life of a young Meskwaki girl in the 19^th century.

To make his illustrations as accurate as possible, Petersen apparently was given access to the collections at what is today the Historical Museum for the state of Iowa and may even have spent time studying artifacts and talking to people in the settlement near Tama.

Petersen’s illustrations number fifty-three in the University Museums’ permanent collection, many in color, but only fifteen were published and only a select few in color.  A letter to Rhode and Coon from the publisher found in the Petersen papers explains: 1) Color is expensive so we can probably use only four 2) The pictures are not planned with any shape of book in mind 3) Because of the use of soft crayon in some of the black and whites, the pictures are not sharp and will not be clear. 

The publisher offered to pay $150 to have Petersen redraw some of the illustrations.  The lore and the costumes of the Meskwaki and other Indigenous peoples were sources for Petersen later in the early 1940s when he created the Fountain of the Four Seasons for the front of the Memorial Union at Iowa State. These are a selection of the drawings for the book.

This exhibition is guest curated by Jerome Thompson and coordinated by University Museums, with support by Lorraine Bruns Estate, Carol and David Hawn, Beverly and Warren Madden, Rae Reilly, and University Museums Membership.

One chapter in Cha-Ki-Shi describes in detail how the bark house was constructed and the types of materials gathered to make it.

Cattails (Typha sp.) were gathered to make mats for floor coverings or to make mats to cover the dome-shaped wikiup.

Sometimes called double ball, this game was played by women and is similar to field hockey today.