464 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1953 



E and F Streets NW. Probably, many, if not all, of his Indian por- 

 traits were executed there. 



The first Indians known to have been painted by King were mem- 

 bers of a delegation of 16 leaders from the Pawnee, Omaha, Kansa, 

 Oto, and Missouri Tribes of the Great Plains who arrived in Wash- 

 ington on November 29, 1821, in care of Maj. Benjamin O'Fallon, 

 United States Indian agent. The National Intelligencer of November 

 30, 1821, heralded their arrival : "Their object is to visit their Great 

 Father, and learn something of that civilization of which they have 

 hitherto remained in total ignorance. They are from the most remote 

 tribes with which we have intercourse, and they are believed to be the 

 first of those tribes that have ever been in the midst of the settle- 

 ments . . . These red men of the forest who now visit us are completely 

 in a state of nature." President Monroe entertained these red-skinned 

 visitors at the White House. Everywhere they went in the Nation's 

 Capital they aroused the curiosity and interest of onlookers. It was 

 probably Thomas L. McKenney, United States Superintendent of In- 

 dian Trade, who encouraged King to paint portraits of several members 

 of this delegation. He is known to have made individual portraits 

 of at least six of them : the Oto chiefs Choncape and Shaumonekusse ; 

 the latter's pretty 18-year-old wife, the Eagle of Delight; and three 

 Pawnee leaders, Sharitarish (Wicked Chief), Peskelechaco (pi. 2, 

 left) , and Petalesharro (Generous Chief) . Bang's portrait of Petale- 

 sharro is the earliest known representation of a Plains Indian wearing 

 the picturesque feathered bonnet (pi. 2, right). His painting of The 

 Eagle of Delight may be the earliest oil portrait of a Plains Indian 

 woman (pi. 3). Probably these were among the Indian portraits 

 that hung on the walls of McKenney's office in Georgetown. 



King also undertook a group portrait of five unnamed members of 

 this delegation simply titled "Young Omawhaw, War Eagle, Little 

 Missouri, and Pawnees," reproduced as plate 4. This original oil 

 painting was presented to the Smithsonian Institution in 1946 by Miss 

 Helen Barlow of London, England. It is noteworthy that these paint- 

 ings were executed a full decade before George Catlin traveled west 

 to paint these and other "wild tribes" in their home territories. 



When Thomas L. McKenney was placed in charge of the Bureau of 

 Indian Affairs under the War Department in March 1824, he took 

 vigorous steps to enlarge the Government collection of Indian por- 

 traits. Secretary of War James Barbour in 1832 credited McKenney 

 with conceiving "the expediency of preserving the likenesses of some 

 of the most distinguished among this most extraordinary race of 

 people. Believing, as I did, that this race was about to become extinct, 

 and that a faithful resemblance of the most remarkable among them 

 would be full of interest in aftertimes, I cordially approved of the 



