Ca-Ta-He-Cas-Sa: Black Hoof Principal Chief of the Shawannes

Book Description

Philadelphia: E. C. Biddle, 1837. unbound. very good. Lehman and Duval. Portrait. Lithograph with original hand coloring. Page measures 19" x 13". Beautiful portrait from the folio edition of McKenney and Hall's "History of the Indian Tribes of North America". As Superintendent of the Indian Trade Bureau, Thomas McKenney wanted to document the rapidly disappearing culture of the American natives. He activated the project, sponsored by the War Department, by commissioning writer James Hall and Charles Bird King, a renowned American portraitist. King painted the prominent Indians while they visited Washington D.C. as treaty delegates. Most of the original oil paintings were destroyed by fire in the Smithsonian Museum in 1865. These lithographs, published 1842-58, are all that remain and are still hailed as one of the best visual records of influential Native Americans of the nineteenth century. Ca-Ta-He-Cas-Sa was a highly respected chief of a large Ohio tribe who though a great warrior, kept his word of peace after signing a treaty in 1795. There is an original crease in the paper across the subject's jacket. Overall toning and offsetting. One piece from our collection of Native American portraits.

Not sure what some of these terms mean? Look it up in our glossary.