Hermès Chefs Indiens Scarf

Among the treasures of the collection of Émile Hermès, three sumptuous volumes are devoted to America’s First Nations: McKenney and Hall’s History of the Indian Tribes of North America.
During the winter of 1821, Thomas McKenney – Washington’s Superintendent of Indian Affairs – received a major delegation of the representatives of many of the continent’s First Nations. At the States General, First Nation leaders met James Monroe, fifth President of the United States. Artist Charles Bird King invited them to pose for individual portraits. Dressed in traditional ceremonial costume, or their own adaptations of Western dress, accessorised with feather headdresses or multicoloured turbans, the gallery of portraits inspired the lithographs reproduced in McKenney and Hall’s albums.
Now, Texan painter Kermit Oliver – a specialist in Native Americana – presents his own tribute to these remarkable plates: the Pawnee chief Shar-I-Tar-Ish, Chief Aseola of the Seminole, the Sioux chief Wa-Na-Ta and others pose in a circle around the central symbol of a turtle, representing the protective powers of Mother Earth, and the virtues of wisdom and perseverance.