Between 1865 and 1870 Thomas L. McKenney and James Hall published their History of the Indian Tribes of Northern America, with Biographical Sketches and Anecdotes of the Principal Chiefs. The book, which came out in three volumes, contains biographies and lithographies of tribal chiefs.
Hall and Mckenney subscribed to the same philosophy that later drove the work of Edward Curtis — and Bureau of American Ethnology, too — in the latter part of the 1800s (Edward S. Curtis published volume 1 of his 20 volume photo documentation The North American Indian in 1907): the Native American people were dying out, and their culture was disappearing, and thus it was crucial to document (as Mckenney wrote) “whatever of the aboriginal man can be rescued from the destruction which awaits his race,” as much as possible as fast as possible before it was all gone.
For his salvage ethnography project, Thomas Mckenney commissioned the painter Charles Bird King (1785 – 1862) to paint portraits of Native American leaders who came to Washington to negotiate treaties. King painted these portraits between 1821 and 1837, and the lithographies in the book are based on his paintings. James Hall wrote the biographies of the visiting leaders.
No-Way-Ke-Sug-Ga.
Otoe tribe. From volume 3 of Thomas L. McKenney and James Hall’s History of the Indian Tribes of Northern America, with Biographical Sketches and Anecdotes of the Principal Chiefs (1865-70).
No-Tin.
A Chippewa chief. From volume 3 of Thomas L. McKenney and James Hall’s History of the Indian Tribes of Northern America, with Biographical Sketches and Anecdotes of the Principal Chiefs (1865-70).
Tah-Ro-Hon.
An Ioway warrior. From volume 2 of Thomas L. McKenney and James Hall’s History of the Indian Tribes of Northern America, with Biographical Sketches and Anecdotes of the Principal Chiefs (1865-70).
To-Ka-Con.
A Sioux chief. From volume 1 of Thomas L. McKenney and James Hall’s History of the Indian Tribes of Northern America, with Biographical Sketches and Anecdotes of the Principal Chiefs (1865-70).Bibliography
- Curtis, Edward S. The North American Indian. 20 volumes. Cambridge, U.S.A.: Cambridge University Press, 1907-30.
- McKenney, Thomas Loraine and James Hall. History of the Indian tribes of North America : with biographical sketches and anecdotes of the principal chiefs. Embellished with one hundred portraits from the Indian Gallery in the War Department at Washington. Philadelphia: D. Rice & Co, 1836-1844, 1872.