Okipa ceremony by Catlin. Plate 4. Everything Comes Out Day, George Catlin, 1867

The third day of the ceremony was a re-enactment of the time when all the animals held prisoners in dog den butte by hoita were set free. The eight painted buffalo dancers wear green willows on the back. The okipa maker is at the sacred shrine ”the retreat of the waters” and holds the pipe of the mythological hero lone man. At left people are running away from the white spotted cannibal the foolish one. The images on high poles in front of a lodge were not a part of the okipa ceremony. Bowers, alfred w. : mandan social and ceremonial organization. Moscow, idaho, 1991. Pages 111-163. Date: 1867.