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MCKENNEY, Thomas L. (1785-1859) and James HALL (1793-1868)
Opothle Yaholo, a Creek Chief
Philadelphia: F. W. Grennough, 1838. Hand-coloured lithograph by J. T. Bowen after Charles Bird King's painting of 1825. Very good condition . Image size (including text): 15 3/8 x 8 7/8 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.
A judicious and diplomatic Creek leader and spokesman, Opothleyaholo (c. 1798-1862 ), which means "Good Shouting Child", fought in the Creek War of 1813-14 under Red Eagle against General Jackson. Despite the entreaties and inducements of federal agents, he steadfastly refused to sell his ancestral homelands to the government and, like the majority of Creek nation, was a staunch opponent of William McIntosh and the 1825 Treaty of Indian Springs. In 1826, he led a delegation to Washington to dispute the validity of the treaty, which was eventually nullified by President John Quincy Adams. This visit resulted in the Treaty of Washington, in which the Creeks were permitted to retain a portion of their land on the Alabama-Georgia border,though neither Georgia nor Alabama honored that treaty. Opothle Yaholo later accepted the inevitable under President Jackson and signed the Second Treaty of Washington in 1832, in which the Creek ceded part of their territory in Alabama to the United States in return for lands in the Indian Territory in Oklahoma. He and his followers remained faithful to the Union when the Civil War broke out, in opposition to a strong part of Confederate Cherokees. It was in an effort to escape from the white and Cherokee Confederates that he died in the winter of 1862 in Kansas.
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, and his 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 making a 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; Horan,142; Johansen & Grinde, 272.
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#20596 $1,750.00 
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© 2002-2005 Donald A. Heald
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