Ke-chím-qua, Big Bear

George Catlin, born Wilkes-Barre, PA 1796-died Jersey City, NJ 1872 · 1830

George Catlin probably painted this portrait of Ke-chím-qua, a member of the Kickapoo tribe, at Fort Leavenworth (in today’s Kansas) in 1830, the same year he took portraits of the Delaware, Kaskaskia, Peoria, and other tribes. Catlin’s efforts from 1830 are generally considered his first attempts at Indian portraits in the West. In his 1848 Catalogue, where he offered notes and descriptions of all the paintings in his Indian Gallery, Catlin described Ke-chím-qua as having a “wampum on his neck, and red flag in his hand, the symbol of war or ‘blood.’” (Truettner, The Natural Man Observed, 1979)