Joven Omahaw, Águila de Guerra, Pequeño Misuri y Pawnees

In the winter of 1821 a delegation of Plains chiefs, men of the Pawnee, Omaha, and neighbouring nations, was brought east to Washington. The government wanted them to see its power up close and give up land, and between the meetings the war department paid Charles Bird King to paint their portraits in his studio on Seventh Street. This group study came out of those sittings. Around War Eagle's neck hangs a large silver medal stamped with the president's face, handed to chiefs as a token of friendship and worn, then, at every formal occasion. King painted more than 100 of these delegates over the next 20 years, and much of that Indian gallery was later destroyed when fire tore through the Smithsonian in 1865.