McKenney and Hall, 1836-1844 - CHON-MON-I-CASE. AN OTTO HALF CHIEF, from History of the Indian Tribes of North - ca. 1837-1844 - T-Shirt

This is a bust-length portrait of Chon-Mon-I-Case, an Otto half chief, rendered as a hand-coloured lithograph from the nineteenth-century series History of the Indian Tribes of North America.

Visual Elements & Composition

The portrait sits in a vertical rectangle, with the sitter framed in a bust-length vignette. Parchment cream dominates the field, giving the page a warm, aged tone, while warm skin tan, brick red and pale ivory build the figure. Slate grey accents add a quiet counterpoint. The sitter wears a red hair roach with upright horns and a claw-and-bead necklace with an arm band. The printed name and title, CHON-MON-I-CASE and AN OTTO HALF CHIEF, anchor the composition at the top of the image.

Meaning & Symbolism

Thomas McKenney, head of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, commissioned many of the original paintings, primarily from artist Charles Bird King, and these were adapted into the lithographs of the publication. The series documented Indigenous leaders who travelled to Washington, D.C., for diplomatic delegations during a period of severe displacement and federal policy change. The regalia and names recorded here show individual presence and leadership, even within the documentary and salvage-ethnography framing of the era. Today the series stands as one of the most widely circulated pictorial records of early national Native dignitaries.

Wearing the Portrait

A portrait printed across the chest puts the sitter's face and regalia at eye level, where the fine lithographic detail, the feathered roach and the beadwork can be read up close. The bold composition of the vertical portrait translates directly to the front of a tee, keeping the name and title in view as the shirt is worn.