Keokuk 1780/81–1848 - a Sauk Indian Chief

1820 Keokuk, Sauk chief, wearing a headdress of colored animal hair. Keokuk (1780/81–June 1848) was a Sauk Indian chief, the son of a Sauk warrior of the Fox clan and his mixed-lineage wife. His name had more than one translation. It was reported as "one-who-movesabout-alertly" and "the watchful fox," but later in life he called himself "the man who has been everywhere."

1832 Keokuk and his son, by Charles Bird King (1785-1862).  A powerful, athletic man, Keokuk became a full warrior when, as a young man, he killed a Sioux brave. Gifted in oratory, a talent prized by American Indians, he became the guest-keeper for his village and then attained prominence during the War of 1812. After war chief Black Hawk led many Sauk warriors to fight for the British, it was feared that American forces would attack Saukenuk, the main Sauk village. Keokuk persuaded the tribal council not to flee from the town. He declared that he would lead the defense and was named war chief–a role he could hold as a member of the Fox clan. No enemy force appeared, but Keokuk retained the title of war chief, much to the chagrin of Black Hawk when he returned.

Keokuk soon developed influence as a diplomat dealing with white authorities. In that capacity, he traveled to Washington, D.C., with a tribal delegation in 1824. Besides negotiating some changes to treaties for the Sauk and their Meskwaki (Fox) allies, Keokuk, impressed with the population and resources of the United States, became determined to avoid conflict with such a powerful people. He was not a coward. He would fight enemies, especially the Sioux, with whom the Sauk and Meskwaki contested for hunting grounds. However, he reluctantly worked to keep more hostilities from erupting after the federal government demanded peace among the tribes.

1834 Keokuk by George Catlin 1796-1872.  Problems arose when Black Hawk, who had earlier left Illinois and his beloved Saukenuk for Iowa, decided to take his followers back to the town. Black Hawk had never accepted the treaty of 1804 by which the Sauk surrendered ownership of their Illinois land, and only Keokuk's efforts had convinced him to leave Saukenuk. Now his attempt to reoccupy the town initiated the Black Hawk War. Keokuk succeeded in keeping his followers and others from following Black Hawk. With the defeat of Black Hawk, the federal government not only forced the Sauk and Meskwaki to give up land in eastern Iowa but also named Keokuk the principal peace or civil chief of a confederated Sauk and Meskwaki tribe.

1834 Keokuk by George Catlin 1796-1872.  Keokuk's new status led to discord. In Sauk culture, a member of the Fox clan could not be a civil chief. Moreover, the Meskwaki did not want a Sauk to be their leader. Keokuk's friendship with white fur traders and his accommodation to the wishes of the federal government, which favored him with gifts, mixed with his profligate ways, brought dissent. Keokuk succeeded in weathering some of the criticism of his leadership. In 1837 he led another delegation to Washington, D.C., where he contested a Sioux delegation over land claims. Even his tribal foes looked to him for his diplomatic skills. At the same time, white Americans began to consider him one of the most important American Indians of the day.

Controversy over Keokuk's leadership intensified over his use of tribal resources. Federal agents allowed Keokuk and three other chiefs (known as the "money chiefs") to distribute tribal annuities. In 1842, as the depletion of game and increased debt to traders impoverished the Sauk and Meskwaki, Keokuk negotiated the sale of remaining tribal land in Iowa. Even many of his detractors accepted the sale and agreed to remove to Kansas; others, however, especially many Meskwaki, considered the land in Iowa theirs and decried the treaty. Nonetheless, in 1845 Keokuk led his followers to Kansas, where he died in 1848. His bones were reburied in Keokuk, Iowa (although it was later discovered that the skeleton's skull was not Keokuk's).

Keokuk in 1847 by Thomas Easterly. In the bottom-right corner reads Ke-o-kuk or the Watchful Fox.  (Easterly and Artist are engraved into the frame)  For more than 3 decades, Keokuk functioned as one of the most noted Indians in the United States. Pursuing diplomacy over warfare, he endeavored to balance Sauk and Meskwaki interests with his desire to placate white interests–while also indulging his own acquisitiveness. In the end, he remained at peace with the United States but could not preserve a tribal presence in Iowa.

William T. Hagen, The Sac and Fox Indians (1958). 
Richard Metcalf, "Who Shall Rule at Home? Native American Politics and White-Indian Relations," Journal of American History 61 (1974), 651–65 
Alvin M. Josephy, The Patriot Chiefs: A Chronicle of American Indian Resistance (1958).

By Thomas Burnell Colbert "Keokuk" The Biographical Dictionary of Iowa. University of Iowa Press, 2009. 

John Hauser (American artist, 1859-1913) paints Natives In the Foothills of America's 1896 South West

John Hauser (American artist, 1859-1913) In the Foothills 1896

John Hauser was best known for his portraits of Native Americans & depictions of various aspects of Indian life. He had academic training at art schools in Europe, including the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Munich. In the United States he became fascinated with Native Americans of the Southwest & West, whom he painted for the rest of his life. In 1893, he traveled with the American artist Joseph Henry Sharp to Taos, New Mexico & other areas of that & nearby states. He did so much work at the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota that he & his wife were adopted by the Lakota Sioux as members of their nation.

White Plume (1765-1838), also called Nom-pa-wa-rah, Manshenscaw, & Monchousiachief of the Kaw (Kansa, Kanza) Indians.

White Plume (c 1765-1838), also known as Nom-pa-wa-rah, Manshenscaw, and Monchousia, was a chief of the Kaw (Kansa, Kanza) Indians. He signed a treaty in 1825, ceding millions of acres of Kaw land to the United States. Many members of the Kaw Nation of Oklahoma trace their lineage back to him. He was the great-great-grandfather of Charles Curtis, 31st Vice President of the United States.

Monchousia by Charles Bird King (1785 -1862), 1822.  White Plume was born about 1765. The Kaw tribe at that time occupied lands in what became the states of Kansas and Missouri and numbered about 1500 persons. White Plume married a daughter of the Osage Chief Pawhuska. White Plume had 5 children. His 3 sons all died when young men. His 2 daughters, Hunt Jimmy (b c 1800) and Wyhesee (b c 1802) married French traders Louis Gonville and Joseph James. Until the United States acquired Louisiana Territory from France in 1803, the Kaw subsisted primarily on buffalo hunting with only limited agriculture. They were dependent on selling furs and buffalo robes to French traders to acquire European goods such as guns. 

White Plume was one of the Kaw signatories to an 1815 treaty with the United States. With his daughters married to French traders, White Plume was identified by American officials as more progressive than his rivals among the Kaws. In 1821 he was invited by Indian Superintendent William Clark (of Lewis and Clark) to visit Washington, DC as a member of a delegation of Indian leaders. The group met with President James Monroe and other American officials, visited New York City, Baltimore, and Philadelphia, and danced on the White House Lawn and at the residence of the French Minister. 

White Plume came back from Washington convinced that the future of the Kaw, and his own future, was accommodation with the United States. Already eastern Indians were migrating west and occupying lands claimed by the Kaw. The Missouri River was a highway to fur trappers and traders heading for the Rocky Mountains. In 1822, the 1st wagons traveled through Kaw hunting grounds from Missouri to New Mexico on the Santa Fe Trail. 

In 1825, White Plume was the principal Kaw chief signing a treaty giving 18 million acres to the United States in exchange for annuities of 3,500 dollars per year for 20 years plus livestock and assistance to enable the Kaw to become full-time farmers. In exchange, the Kaw received a sliver of land 30 miles wide extending westward into the Great Plains from the Kansas River valley. To win support for the treaty from the increasingly important mixed bloods, each of 23 mixed blood children of French/Kaw parents received a section of land on the north bank of the Kansas River. The immense land giveaway in the 1825 treaty, plus a similar treaty signed by the government with the Osage, opened up Kansas to the relocation, usually forced, of eastern Indian tribes. The U.S. would squeeze the Kaw into ever smaller territories.  Much of the land White Plume ceded was already lost to the Kaw and was being occupied by eastern Indians or White settlers. White Plume probably also foresaw that the Kaw would have to learn to live on much reduced territories and change their emphasis from hunting and fur trading to agriculture. 

When George Sibley visited the Kaws in 1811, they were living in a single prosperous village of 128 family bark lodges on the site of present-day Manhattan, Kansas. The favoritism, however, shown by the United States to White Plume and the mixed bloods contributed to rivalries for leadership. In the 1820s, the Kaw split into four factions. Not accepting White Plume’s leadership, the 3 conservative factions continued to live in villages near Manhattan. White Plume and his supporters settled downstream near the Kaw Agency headquarters established near Williamstown, Kansas in 1827.  The increasing problems of the Kaw were amplified by smallpox epidemics that swept through the tribe in 1827-1828 and 1831-1832 killing nearly 500 members of the tribe including White Plume’s wife and 2 of his sons.

Methodist missionary, William Johnson arrived in 1830 at the Williamstown agency to begin a school for Kaw and mixed-blood children. The Kaw Agency was a microcosm of the “careless, indeed illusive” efforts of the U.S. government’s efforts to make Christians and farmers of Indians such as the Kaw who had little desire to be either. Indian Agents, appointed by the government were often corrupt or incompetent. Most agents found reason to be absent from the agency for extended periods of time. Also, in accordance with the treaty, farmers, teachers, missionaries, both Roman Catholic and Protestant, and a blacksmith lived near the agency to "civilize" the Kaw. One of the farmers was Daniel Morgan Boone, son of the famous scout, Daniel Boone. His son, born here August 22, 1828. The Chouteau family established a trading post across the river to provide goods to the Kaw in exchange for buffalo robes and furs. 

The U.S. government built a stone house for White Plume near the agency, but he lived in a traditional lodge; because he said the house had "too much fleas." Many of the mixed bloods also lived near the agency, as did a number of French voyageurs who were accustomed to life on the frontier. As novelist Washington Irving reported with distain, "the old French houses engaged in the Indian trade had gathered round them a train of dependents, mongrel Indians, and mongrel Frenchmen, who had intermarried with Indians."

White Plume was a prominent person on the frontier in the 1830s, and travelers often called on him. The painter George Catlin described him as "a very urban and hospitable man of good, portly size, speaking some English, and making himself good company for all persons who travel through his country and have the good luck to shake his liberal and hospitable hand." Catlin regretted that he did not have the opportunity to paint White Plume’s portrait. A missionary reported in 1838, that he had died, while on a traditional autumn hunt.

From the Interior of a Tipi (TeePee) by Cassilly Adams (1843-1921)

Cassilly Adams (American artist, 1843-1921) View from the Interior of a Tipi (TeePee)

A descendant of President John Adams, Kassilli or Cassilly Adams (1843-1921) was born  in Zanesville, Ohio. His father, William Adams, was an amateur painter. Young Cassilly studied painting at the Academy of Art in Boston and Cincinnati Art School. During the Civil War he served in the US Navy. By 1880, Adams was living in St. Louis. In 1884, the artist created a monumental canvas depicting the Battle of the Little Bighorn (death of the Seventh Cavalry Regiment of the US Army and its famous commander George Custer) - "Custer's Last Fight." The painting was exhibited across the country, and then was purchased by the company "Anheuser-Busch" and later donated to the Seventh Cavalry. After the restoration of the original during the Great Depression, it was exhibited in the officers' club at Fort Bliss (Texas), and June 13, 1946 was burned in a fire. Despite the success of "Custer's Last Fight," Adams remained a relatively unknown artist. He focused on the image of Indians American West Plains life, worked as an illustrator, a farmer. He died Kassilli Adams May 8, 1921 in Traders Point near Indianapolis.

Alfred Jacob Miller (1810-1874) - Camp Scene (Sioux)

Alfred Jacob Miller (1810-1874) Camp Scene (Sioux) 

"American sculptors travel thousands of miles to study Greek statues in the Vatican at Rome, seemingly unaware that in their own country there exists a race of men equal in form and grace (if not superior) to the finest beau ideal ever dreamed of by the Greeks. And it does seem a little extraordinary that up to this time (as far as I am aware) not a single sculptor has thought it worth his while to make a journey among these Indians, who are now sojourning on the Western side of the Rocky mountains, and are rapidly passing away. Most unquestionably, that sculptor who travels here,- and models fro what he sees (supposing him to have equal power and genius), will far excel any other who merely depends upon his own conception of what it ought to be. The subject of the sketch is an Indian's home;- he has planted his lodge on the borders of a small stream, screened from the prairie by hills in the middle distance, near which are some of his party." A.J. Miller, extracted from "The West of Alfred Jacob Miller" (1837). In July of 1858, Baltimore art collector William T. Walters commissioned 200 watercolors at $12  apiece from Baltimore-born artist Alfred Jacob Miller. These paintings were each accompanied by a descriptive text written by the artist, & were delivered in installments over the next 21 months & ultimately bound in 3 albums. These albums included the field-sketches drawn during Miller's 1837 expedition to the annual fur-trader's rendezvous in the Green River Valley (now western Wyoming).  These watercolors offer a unique record of the the lives of those involved in the closing years of the western fur trade & a look at the artist's opinions of both women & Native Americans.  The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, Maryland.

George Catlin (1796–1872) - Wah-pe-séh-see, Mother of the Chief

George Catlin (American artist, 1796-1872) Wah-pe-séh-see, Mother of the Chief

In 1818, the artist George Catlin (1796–1872) was practicing law in Connecticut & Pennsylvania, but he abandoned his practice in 1821, to pursue painting Native Americans, a subject, "on which to devote a whole life-time of enthusiasm." Catlin based his entire body of work—including over 500 paintings done in the 1830s recounting his travels — following the Vanishing (Native) American, "In traversing the immense regions of the Classic West, the mind...gradually rises again into the proud & heroic elegance of savage society, in a state of pure & original nature, beyond the reach of civilized contamination...here, treachery & cruelty, are...restrained & frequently subdued by the noblest traits of honor & magnanimity, by a race of men who live & enjoy life & its luxuries, & practice its virtues, very far beyond the usual estimations of the world...From the first (colonial) settlements of our Atlantic coast to the present day, the...frontier has regularly crowded upon them, from the northern to the southern extremities of our country, &, like the fire in a mountain, which destroys every thing where it passes, it has blasted & sunk them, & all but their names, into oblivion, wherever it has traveled." Catlin traveled the frontier from 1830 to 1836, visiting 50 tribes west of the Mississippi, from present-day North Dakota to Oklahoma, creating a visual & narrative record of Native American life. In 1830, the Indian Removal Act began a 12-year campaign to remove the remaining Indians from their ancient homelands east of the Mississippi. Within a few years, many Native Americans would be decimated by starvation & disease; within a few decades, the number of buffalo would drop from millions to a few thousand, & the Native Americans' high prairies would be crosshatched by the plow & the railroad. Catlin produced 2 major collections of paintings of American Indians & published a series of books chronicling his travels among the native peoples of North, Central, & South America.

Sioux near Fort Laramie 1859 by Albert Bierstadt (German-born American painter, 1830-1902)

Albert Bierstadt (German-born American painter, 1830-1902) Municipality of Sioux near Fort Laramie (1859).  Albert Bierstadt (German-born American painter, 1830-1902) was best known for his lavish, sweeping landscapes of the American West. To paint the scenes, Bierstadt joined several journeys of the Westward Expansion. Bierstadt, was born in Solingen, Germany. He was still a toddler, when his family moved from Germany to New Bedford in Massachusetts. In 1853, he returned to Germany to study in Dusseldorf, where he refined his technical abilities by painting Alpine landscapes. After he returned to America in 1857, he joined an overland survey expedition traveling westward across the country. Along the route, he took countless photographs & made sketches & returned East to paint from them. 

Native Americans in a Lunar Eclipse by William Rimmer (American artist, 1816-1879)

William Rimmer (American artist, 1816-1879) Native Americans in a Lunar Eclipse. Every year, there are at least 2 lunar eclipses and as many as 5, although total lunar eclipses are significantly less common. A lunar eclipse always occurs about 2 weeks before or after a solar eclipse. On some occasions, a lunar eclipse can be both preceded and followed by a solar eclipse.  A lunar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes directly behind the Earth into its umbra (shadow). This can occur only when the sun, Earth, and moon are aligned (in "syzygy") exactly, or very closely so, with the Earth in the middle. Hence, a lunar eclipse can occur only the night of a full moon. The type and length of an eclipse depend upon the Moon's location relative to its orbital nodes.  A total lunar eclipse has the direct sunlight completely blocked by the earth's shadow. The only light seen is refracted through the earth's shadow. This light looks red for the same reason that the sunset looks red, due to rayleigh scattering of the more blue light. Because of its reddish color, a total lunar eclipse is sometimes called a blood moon. 

Pacific Coast Native Americans by Louis Choris (1795-1828)

Louis Choris (German-Russian painter 1795-1828) Pacific Ocean Indian

Louis Choris (1795-1828) was a German-Russian painter & explorer. He was one of the 1st sketch artists used for for expedition research. Choris, who was a Russian of German stock, was born in Yekaterinoslav, now Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine on March 22, 1795. He visited the Pacific coast of North America in 1816, on board the Ruric, being attached in the capacity of artist to the Romanzoff expedition under the command of Lieutenant Otto von Kotzebue, sent out for the purpose of exploring a Northwest Passage. After the voyage, Choris went to Paris, where he issued a portfolio of his drawings in lithographic reproduction. Choris worked extensively in pastels, as he documented the Ohlone people in the missions of San Francisco, California in 1816.

Voyage Pittoresque Autour du Monde, Avec des Portraits de Savages d'Amerique...by Louis Choriswas was published in Paris by Firmin Didot in 1822. Choris was only 20 years old,  when he was appointed official artist aboard the Rurik, 1815- 1818, commanded by the Russian, Otto von Kotzebue. After visiting islands in the South Seas, Kotzebue explored the North American coast & landed twice on the Hawaiian Islands. The first work in particular has great American interest because of its lithographs of California, the Queen Charlotte Islands, the Aleutians, St. Lawrence Island in the Bering Sea, & Kotzebue Sound in Alaska. The lithographs cover all aspects of native life & culture.

Winter Trail by Cassilly Adams (1843-1921)

Cassilly Adams (American artist, 1843-1921) Winter Trail

A descendant of President John Adams, Kassilli or Cassilly Adams (1843-1921) was born  in Zanesville, Ohio. His father, William Adams, was an amateur painter. Young Cassilly studied painting at the Academy of Art in Boston and Cincinnati Art School. During the Civil War he served in the US Navy. By 1880, Adams was living in St. Louis. In 1884, the artist created a monumental canvas depicting the Battle of the Little Bighorn (death of the Seventh Cavalry Regiment of the US Army and its famous commander George Custer) - "Custer's Last Fight." The painting was exhibited across the country, and then was purchased by the company "Anheuser-Busch" and later donated to the Seventh Cavalry. After the restoration of the original during the Great Depression, it was exhibited in the officers' club at Fort Bliss (Texas), and June 13, 1946 was burned in a fire. Despite the success of "Custer's Last Fight," Adams remained a relatively unknown artist. He focused on the image of Indians American West Plains life, worked as an illustrator, a farmer. He died Kassilli Adams May 8, 1921 in Traders Point near Indianapolis.

Native Americans Spear Fishing by Albert Bierstadt (German-born American painter, 1830-1902)

Albert Bierstadt (German-born American painter, 1830-1902) Indians Spear Fishing (1862)

Matthew Biagell explains in his book Albert Bierstadt that,"Athough Bierstadt made probing studies of individual Indians during his travels in the West, he usually generalized their appearances & activities in his paintings. He placed them, as he placed European peasants in earlier works, in the middle distance, so that we witness their presence in a landscape setting rather than focus on their movements." Many of his landscapes including Native Americans are the western equivalent of his European generalized landscapes & reveals Bierstadt's consistent attitude toward subject matter regardless of its locale human subjects are engaged in seemingly unrelated activities. His paintings, bathed in a golden glow, often suggest nostalgia for a previous age when Native Americans were thought to have lived harmoniously with nature. Here they are not wily, wicked, or predatory, but are engaged instead in peaceful domestic industry. Works such as this are obviously part of the broad western European tradition of Arcadian scenes, but in its American version the tradition assumes a particular complexity & ambivalence. His painting including Natives often portray the nobility of the Indians before their contact with Europeans & subsequent debasement. Paintings displaying this attitude undoubtedly provided the public with the images it wanted to see, especially during the years Indians were systematically being driven from their lands. Suchromanticized paintings might also be considered retardataire; the Indian, noble or otherwise, no longer engaged many serious 19C writers after the 1850s, & precise anthropological & linguistic analyses of Indian tribes were already being included in the Pacific railroad reports by that time.

Albert Bierstadt (German-born American painter, 1830-1902) was best known for these lavish, sweeping landscapes of the American West. To paint the scenes, Bierstadt joined several journeys of the Westward Expansion. Bierstadt, was born in Solingen, Germany. He was still a toddler, when his family moved from Germany to New Bedford in Massachusetts. In 1853, he returned to Germany to study in Dusseldorf, where he refined his technical abilities by painting Alpine landscapes. After he returned to America in 1857, he joined an overland survey expedition traveling westward across the country. Along the route, he took countless photographs & made sketches & returned East to paint from them. He exhibited at the Boston Athenaeum from 1859-1864, at the Brooklyn Art Association from 1861-1879, & at the Boston Art Club from 1873-1880. A member of the National Academy of Design from 1860-1902, he kept a studio in the 10th Street Studio Building, New York City from 1861-1879. He was a member of the Century Association from 1862-1902, when he died.

Karl Ferdinand Wimar (1828-1862) The Indian Raid 1853

Karl Ferdinand Wimar (1828-1862 a painter of the American West was also known as Charles Wimar & Carl Wimar) The Indian Raid (1853)

A German-born immigrant to the United States, Charles Wimar was fascinated by the American frontier, Wimar focused during this period on images of indiginous American conflicts with settlers, in particular the theme of captivity & abduction. This theme appeared widely in the popular literature & visual arts of the 18C & 19C, in which it was fashionable to mythologize the struggles of the frontier with exotic portrayals of the West & Native Americans. 

When he died from tuberculosis at the age of 34, he left about 50 paintings. In 1843, he traveled to St. Louis, a fur-trading frontier town at the time. Between 1846 & 1850, he was apprenticed to the artist Leon de Pomarede, & accompanied him on a journey up the Mississippi, to St. Anthony Falls in Minnesota. In 1852, Wimar returned to Germany; & for 4 years, he studied with with Emmanuel Leutze & Josef Fay in Düsseldorf. After his return to the United States, Wimar took several journeys up the Mississippi River and, in 1858, up the Yellowstone River – documented in various sketchbooks. Wimar's paintings, like others of the time, reinforced notions of Native Americans as savage & white settlers as cultivated & divinely ordained - a notion that helped justify white colonization of the West. 

Alfred Jacob Miller (1810-1874) - Camp Fire, Preparing the Evening Meal

Alfred Jacob Miller (American, 1810-1874) Camp Fire, Preparing the Evening Meal

"A Trapper is here preparing that most glorious of all mountain morsels, 'a hump rib' for supper. He is spitting it with a stick, the lower end of which is stuck in the ground near the fire inclined inwards. ... The guard for the watch of night is seated to the left. His duty expires at 12 o'clock when he is relieved by another, who continues the guard until 5 o'clock A.M., when the horses are unloosed to feed preparatory to starting. Breakfast is ready at sunrise, and when finished the tents are struck, luggage packed, horses caught up, and another day's journey commenced." A.J. Miller, extracted from "The West of Alfred Jacob Miller" (1837). Transcriptions of field-sketches drawn during the 1837 expedition that Miller had undertaken to the annual fur-trader's rendezvous in the Green River Valley (in what is now western Wyoming), these watercolors are a unique record of the closing years of the western fur trade.

In July of 1858, Baltimore art collector William T. Walters commissioned 200 watercolors at $12  apiece from Baltimore-born artist Alfred Jacob Miller. These paintings were each accompanied by a descriptive text written by the artist, & were delivered in installments over the next 21 months & ultimately bound in 3 albums. These albums included the field-sketches drawn during Miller's 1837 expedition to the annual fur-trader's rendezvous in the Green River Valley (now western Wyoming).  These watercolors offer a unique record of the the lives of those involved in the closing years of the western fur trade & a look at the artist's opinions of both women & Native Americans.  The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, Maryland.

American artist Seth Eastman (1808-1875) portrays a Buffalo Chase

Seth Eastman (American artist, 1808-1875) Buffalo Chase

For settlers of the Plains region in the mid-19C, bison hunting served as a way to increase their economic stake in the area. Trappers & traders made their living selling buffalo fur; in the winter of 1872-1873, more than 1.5 million buffalo were put onto trains & moved eastward. In addition to the potential profits from buffalo leather, which was commonly used to make machinery belts & army boots, buffalo hunting forced Natives to become dependent on beef from cattle. General Winfield Scott Hancock, for example, reminded several Arapaho chiefs at Fort Dodge in 1867: "You know well that the game is getting very scarce & that you must soon have some other means of living; you should therefore cultivate the friendship of the white man, so that when the game is all gone, they may take care of you if necessary." Commercial bison hunters also emerged at this time. Military forts often supported hunters, who would use their civilian sources near their military base. Though officers hunted bison for food & sport, professional hunters made a far larger impact in the decline of bison population.Officers stationed in Fort Hays & Wallace even had bets in their "buffalo shooting championship of the world," between "Medicine Bill" Comstock & "Buffalo Bill" Cody. Some of these hunters would engage in mass bison slaughter in order to make a living.

Born in 1808 in Brunswick, Maine, Seth Eastman (1808-1875) found expression for his artistic skills in a military career. After graduating from the US Military Academy at West Point, where officers-in-training were taught basic drawing & drafting techniques, Eastman was posted to forts in Wisconsin & Minnesota before returning to West Point as assistant teacher of drawing. --- While at Fort Snelling, Eastman married Wakaninajinwin (Stands Sacred), the 15-year-old daughter of Cloud Man, Dakota chief. Eastman left in 1832, for another military assignment soon after the birth of their baby girl, Winona, & he declared his marriage ended when he left. Winona was also known as Mary Nancy Eastman & was the mother of Charles Alexander Eastman, author of Indian Boyhood. --- From 1833 to 1840, Eastman taught drawing at West Point. In 1835, he married his 2nd wife & was reassigned to Fort Snelling as a military commander & remained there with Mary & their 5 children for the next 7 years. During this time Eastman began recording the everyday way of life of the Dakota & the Ojibwa people. Transferred to posts in Florida, & Texas in the 1840s, Eastman made sketches of the native peoples there. This experience prepared him for the next 5 yeas in Washington, DC, where he was assigned to the commissioner of Indian Affairs & illustrated Henry Rowe Schoolcraft's important 6-volume Historical  Statistical Information Respecting the History, Condition, & Prospects of the Indian Tribes of the United States. In 1867, Eastman returned to the Capitol to paint a series of scenes of Native American life for the House Committee on Indian Affairs. From the office of the United States Senate curator, we learn that in 1870, the House Committee on Military Affairs commissioned artist Seth Eastman 17 to paint images of important fortifications in the United States. He completed the works between 1870 & 1875. Of his 17 paintings of forts, 8 are located in the Senate, while the others are displayed on the House side of the Capitol. Eastman was working on the painting West Point, when he died in 1875.

Alfred Boisseau (Paris-born American painter, 1823–1901) paints A Choctaw Woman in Louisiana

Alfred Boisseau (Paris-born American painter, 1823–1901) A Choctaw Woman in Louisiana

The Choctaw are a Native American people native to Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, & Louisiana in the American South. Most Choctaw supported the United States during the American Revolutionary War, & the Choctaw never went to war with the USA. They were some of the first tribes to be moved west of the Mississippi River under the Indian Removal Act, & they were given some of the most favorable lands in the Indian Territory, while those in Mississippi were given US citizenship in 1831. The Choctaw supported the Confederate States of America during the American Civil War, & they would be part of the US Army's code-talkers during World War I.

Choctaw Indian Nation traces its ancestry to Mississippi & some sections of Alabama. Legends tell that the Choctaw people originated from "Nanih Waya," a sacred hill near what is now known as Noxapter, Mississippi. "Nanih Waiya" means "Productive Mound" and is often referred to as "The Mother Mound." Culturally, the Choctaws honored their women as the head of the family household. They were the care-takers of tribe children, elders, and the home.

The Choctaws were the 1st of the 5 southern tribes of the United States to be moved to Oklahoma by the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek in 1830. Over 20,000 Choctaws moved on this long journey, with many of the Choctaw people not surviving this removal on what has come to be called "THE TRAIL OF TEARS."  The Choctaws adjusted quickly to their new homeland. Missionaries were sent to Oklahoma Territory including Southern Baptists, Congregationalists, & Presbyterians. These missionaries established good rapport with the Choctaws, & early impressed upon the Choctaws the importance & need for formal education, if they were to co-exist with the invading settlers.

At that time there were 3 districts in Oklahoma where the Choctaws resided; Pushmataha, Apukshunubbee and Mushulatubbee. Here, largely through the efforts of early missionaries, the Choctaws accepted an alien religion & code of morals; established a completely foreign educational system; adopted the constitution & legal system; & modified their agricultural & commercial practices to conform with the US economic system.

The Choctaw "public school" system was started in 1821, before removal to what became Oklahoma. The Wheelock Academy was founded in 1831. One of the most prominent of the Choctaw schools was established in 1843, known as Armstrong Academy situated in the vicinity north of Bokchito, Bryan County, Oklahoma. When the Civil War broke out, the Choctaws moved their capitol to the Armstrong Academy, so that it would be removed from the war zone. By 1883, the Choctaw Capitol had moved to Tuskahoma, and Armstrong Academy was again used as a boarding school for orphaned Choctaw boys. By 1894, Calvin Institute, another school for Indian youths, was established in Durant, Bryan County, Oklahoma. By 1899, it had attracted an enrollment of 300. The school eventually became known as Oklahoma Presbyterian College, which closed in 1960.

Medicine Dance of the Dakota or Sioux Indians by Seth Eastman (1808-1875)

Seth Eastman (American artist, 1808-1875) Medicine Dance of the Dakota or Sioux Indians

From Europe to the Atlantic coast of America & on to the Pacific coast during the 17C-19C, settlers moved West encountering a variety of Indigenous Peoples who had lived on the land for centuries. The Dakota are a Native American tribe that comprise 2 of the 3 Sioux subcultures, the Santee (eastern) & Yankton (western) Sioux. The Dakota inhabited the Great Plains during the 19C, but they were forced onto reservations in North Dakota, South Dakota, & Oklahoma. The Dakota numbered 20,460 people in 2010, with most being Christian.

Born in 1808 in Brunswick, Maine, Seth Eastman (1808-1875) found expression for his artistic skills in a military career. After graduating from the US Military Academy at West Point, where officers-in-training were taught basic drawing & drafting techniques, Eastman was posted to forts in Wisconsin & Minnesota before returning to West Point as assistant teacher of drawing. --- While at Fort Snelling, Eastman married Wakaninajinwin (Stands Sacred), the 15-year-old daughter of Cloud Man, Dakota chief. Eastman left in 1832, for another military assignment soon after the birth of their baby girl, Winona, & he declared his marriage ended when he left. Winona was also known as Mary Nancy Eastman & was the mother of Charles Alexander Eastman, author of Indian Boyhood. --- From 1833 to 1840, Eastman taught drawing at West Point. In 1835, he married his 2nd wife & was reassigned to Fort Snelling as a military commander & remained there with Mary & their 5 children for the next 7 years. During this time Eastman began recording the everyday way of life of the Dakota & the Ojibwa people. Transferred to posts in Florida, & Texas in the 1840s, Eastman made sketches of the native peoples there. This experience prepared him for the next 5 yeas in Washington, DC, where he was assigned to the commissioner of Indian Affairs & illustrated Henry Rowe Schoolcraft's important 6-volume Historical  Statistical Information Respecting the History, Condition, & Prospects of the Indian Tribes of the United States. In 1867, Eastman returned to the Capitol to paint a series of scenes of Native American life for the House Committee on Indian Affairs. From the office of the United States Senate curator, we learn that in 1870, the House Committee on Military Affairs commissioned artist Seth Eastman 17 to paint images of important fortifications in the United States. He completed the works between 1870 & 1875. Of his 17 paintings of forts, 8 are located in the Senate, while the others are displayed on the House side of the Capitol. Eastman was working on the painting West Point, when he died in 1875.