Chief Me Te A portrait   Save
Ohio History Connection Archives/Library
Description: This is a lithograph of an oil painting of Me Te A, chief of the Potawatomi Tribe, published in volume one of "History of the Indian Tribes of North America" by Thomas Loraine McKenney and James Hall. Me Te A's village was on the St. Joseph River near modern Cedarville, Indiana. Thomas McKenny served as the United States Superintendent of Indian Trade in 1821 and commissioned portraits of American Indian leaders who visited Washington D.C. to negotiate treaties with the United States federal government in order to to preserve the memory and history of America's native peoples. After the paintings were completed, he commissioned lithographs of the 300 paintings and compiled them into three volumes of "History of the Indian Tribes of North America" where a short biography accompanied each portrait. The paintings were housed at the Smithsonian Institution Building, commonly referred to as the Castle, and in 1868 all but five were destroyed in a devastating fire. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: V970_97M199h_v2_p207_MeTeA
Subjects: Potawatomi Tribe; American Indian history; American Indians--Portraits; American Indian tribal leaders
Places: Washington D.C.