Chippeway woman portrait   Save
Ohio History Connection Archives/Library
Description: This is a lithograph of an oil painting titled "Chippeway Squaw" published in volume one of "History of the Indian Tribes of North America" by Thomas Loraine McKenney and James Hall. This lithograph shows a Chippeway woman, or Ojibwe (alternate spellings include Chippewa and Ojibwa), carrying her baby on her back in a cradleboard. The term "squaw" is an English word borrowed from the Algonquian word for woman. However, "squaw" has historically been used in a diminutive manner or as a racial epithet for an American Indian woman. Today, and throughout its history of being used by non-native peoples, "squaw" is offensive for many American Indians. 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_v1_p198_ChippewayWoman
Subjects: American Indian history; American Indians--Portraits; American Indian women; Ohio Women; Mothers and children
Places: Washington D.C.