McKenney and Hall, 1836-1844 - WAA-PA-SHAW. A SIOUX CHIEF, from History of the Indian Tribes of North America - ca. 1838 - T-Shirt

This hand-coloured lithograph gives a bust-length portrait of Waa-pa-shaw, a Sioux chief, set against a plain cream ground with the subject's name printed beneath him.

Visual Elements & Composition

The portrait sits in a vertical rectangle, with the figure framed in a bust-length vignette that fills most of the sheet. Cream paper dominates the image, while steel blue, ochre and warm brown skin tones carry the colour. The sitter wears a blue double-brested coat, an ochre patterned waistcoat and a black neckerchief, and his dark hair is set close to the frame. A caption block below the portrait reads WAA-PA-SHAW and A SIOUX CHIEF, so the name and identity sit in the same composition as the image.

Meaning & Symbolism

Waa-pa-shaw was a leader of the Mdewakanton Sioux, and this portrait records him as he was documented in the early nineteenth century. He appears during a period of tense diplomacy between the Sioux nation and the expanding United States, when the representation of Indigenous leaders became a matter of concern for federal officials. The image comes from History of the Indian Tribes of North America, the ambitious project of Thomas L. McKenney and James Hall. Its European portrait conventions, from the formal pose to the tailored dress, show how policymakers chose to present tribal authority to an audience far from frontier life, which makes the series a complicated but essential archival record of 1830s attitudes.

Crafted for the Shirt

A portrait this formal reads best at chest height, where the bust-length figure can be seen head-on as the wearer moves. The caption block carries the name and title across the shirt, so the image and its label stay together. Each print is a reproduction of McKenney and Hall's original lithograph, and the design keeps the cream, blue and ochre palette of the source sheet.