Red Jacket. Seneca War Chief
ca. 1837-1844
Here stands Red Jacket, a fierce Seneca orator who got his name from a red coat given by the British, yet here he sports a dignified blue coat and a giant silver peace medal from George Washington himself. This portrait is actually a lithograph based on a painting by Charles Bird King, which is a bit of a historical tragedy. King's original collection of Native American portraits was largely destroyed in a Smithsonian fire in 1865, so these prints are some of the only surviving records of leaders who famously resisted assimilation.
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