Friday, January 17, 2020

Ossahinta



This 1845 portrait of Ossahinta, Chief of the Onondaga Nation, by Sanford Thayer hangs in the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, DC.

S. Thayer 1845

The Head Chief of the Onondagas was Ossahinta, also known by the American adopted name, Captain Frost. Ossahinta became known throughout the Six Nations and New York State as a man of peace and integrity. Shortly before his death in 1846, Ossahinta sat for portrait at age eighty-five. Several years later, a reproduction of this painting was used on the cover page of the sheet music, "The Onondaga Polka", a dance composed by J.S. Jacobus. 
Os-Sa-Hin-Ta
Captain Frost
Head Chief of the Onondagas 
Sheet Music for "The Onondaga Polka" by J.S. Jacobus
Lithograph by Napoleon Sarony and Henry B. Major, New York City.

A similar lithograph appears in Reminiscences of Earlier and Later Times: Being a Series of Historical Sketches Relative to Onondaga by Joshua Victor Hopkins Clark, 1849.

OS-SA-HIN-TA
(Captain Frost)
Head Chief of the Onondagas
1845
Clark says this of Ossahinta:
OS-SA-HIN-TA —Captain Frost— This distinguished chief of the Onondagas, who presided with great ability over the councils of the nation from 1830 to 1846, possessed a character and name, which eminently deserves to be remembered. He was a cousin of the celebrated Ouudiaga, and a nephew of Kawhiedota. He was distinguished for the nobleness of his character, the peculiar fervidness of his eloquence, and his unimpeachable integrity — qualities which secured for him the unlimited confidence of his nation. 

No comments:

Post a Comment