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MCKENNEY, Thomas L. (1785-1859) and James HALL (1793-1868)
Sequoyah
Philadelphia: E. C. Biddle, 1837, possibly . Hand-coloured lithograph by John T. Bowen after a painting by Charles Bird King done in 1828.
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.
Sequoyah (1776? - 1843) is one of the most prominent men of American history. Known locally as George Guess, he was the son of a mixed-breed named Gist, Guess or Guest, possibly Nathaniel Gist, Revolutionary soldier and trader, and a Cherokee woman, who brought him up closer to the Cherokees than to the whites. He was born near Fort Loudon, Tennessee. Sequoyah was from the start an inventive boy with an inquisitive mind. After achieving some success in agriculture, he sustained a leg injury that caused him to limp for the rest of his life. Sequoyah learned to be a silversmith, eventually excelling at that craft.
Around 1809, he began to develop the idea of a written language for the Cherokee. He worked on this for at least 12 years and developed a syllabary that is still in use, primarily in Cherokee language churches. Some doubters among his people were persuaded when Sequoyah was able to teach his daughter to read and write the new alphabet. By 1824, white missionaries had translated parts of the bible into this written Cherokee. The alphabet was used in the Cherokee Phoenix, a newspaper that appeared from 1828 to 1834. Sequoyah visited Washington in 1828, at which time McKenney arranged to have this portrait painted. He spent his last years looking for Cherokees who had traveled West during the Revolution. He died in Mexico in 1843.
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 1830, 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 24; Sabin 43410a; Horan p. 264-266
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#20591 $3,500.00 
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© 2002-2005 Donald A. Heald
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