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MCKENNEY, Thomas L. (1785-1859) and James HALL (1793-1868)
[Black Hawk] Ma-Ka-Tai-Me-She-Kiah or Black Hawk, a Saukie Brave
Philadelphia: F.W. Greenough, 1838. Hand-coloured lithograph. Very good condition. Image size (including text): 13 1/8 x 8 1/2 inches. Sheet size: 18 x 12 3/4 inches.
A fine image from McKenney and Hall's 'Indian Tribes of North America': `One of the most important [works] ever published on the American Indians' (Field),` a landmark in American culture' (Horan) and an invaluable contemporary record of a vanished way of life.
The son of the revered Chief Pyesa and a member of the Sauk Thunder clan, Ma-Ka-Tai-Me-She-Kia-Kiah or Black Hawk was a prominent Fox leader and valiant warrior who fought for the British in the War of 1812. He is, however, primarily renowned for the significant war that bore his name, the Black Hawk War (1831-1832). Unlike fellow Sauk and Fox leaders like Keokuk, who relinquished much of their land in southern Illinois and agreed to resettle west of the Mississippi River at the 1831 council at Rock Island, Black Hawk strongly opposed the expansion of white settlers into his nation's territory and remained in his village of Saukenuk. After eventually being compelled to move across the Mississippi by the encroaching settlers and the Illinois militia, Black Hawk and his supporters secured several Winnebago allies and fought to reclaim his homeland. In 1832, Illinois governor John Reynolds, dispatched U.S. troops after the elusive Sauk chief, who was eventually captured at Fort Crawford, Prairie du Chien. In the aftermath of the war, Black Hawk, who was praised for his great courage, met President Andrew Jackson in Washington and after touring the eastern cities, settled on the Des Moines River. The Sauk tribe merged with the Fox tribe in the eighteenth century and inhabited the Great Lakes region of the United States.
McKenney and Hall's 'Indian Tribes of North America' has long been renowned for its faithful portraits of Native Americans. The portraits are largely based on paintings by the artist Charles Bird King, who was employed by the War Department to paint the Indian delegates visiting Washington D.C., forming the basis of the War Department's Indian Gallery. Most of King's original paintings were subsequently destroyed in a fire at the Smithsonian, and their appearance in McKenney and Hall's magnificent work is thus our only record of the likenesses of many of the most prominent Indian leaders of the nineteenth century. Numbered among King's sitters were Sequoyah, Red Jacket, Major Ridge, Keokuk and Black Hawk. After six years as Superintendent of Indian Trade, Thomas McKenney had become concerned for the survival of the Western tribes. He had observed unscrupulous individuals taking advantage of the Native Americans for profit, and his vocal warnings about their future prompted his appointment by President Monroe to the Office of Indian Affairs. As first director, McKenney was to improve the administration of Indian programs in various government offices. His first trip was during the summer of 1826 to the Lake Superior area for a treaty with the Chippewa, opening mineral rights on their land. In 1827, he journeyed west again for a treaty with the Chippewa, Menominee , and Winebago in the present state of Michigan. His journeys provided an unparalleled opportunity to become acquainted with Native American tribes. When President Jackson dismissed him from his government post in 1839, McKenney was able to turn more of his attention to his publishing project. Within a few years, he was joined by James Hall, a lawyer who had written extensively about the west. McKenney and Hall saw their work as a way of preserving an accurate visual record of a rapidly disappearing culture. (Gilreath).
Cf. BAL 6934; cf. Bennett p.79; cf. Field 992; cf. Howes M129; cf. Lipperhiede Mc4; cf. Reese, Stamped With A National Character p. 24; Sabin 43410a
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#20577 $2,500.00 
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© 2002-2005 Donald A. Heald
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