James Otto Lewis

For eleven years of that time, he was working for the Bureau of Indian Affairs, then within the War Department, to make portraits of Native Americans.

From 1823 to 1834, Lewis worked for the U.S. Government to paint official portraits of Indians, in what was an effort to preserve a record of their leaders and what was believed to be a vanishing culture.

In this official role during the 1820s, Lewis attended numerous Indian treaties and ceremonies held in Indiana and Wisconsin, where he began to make portraits of many of the participants.

[3] During the 1827 trip which Lewis and Cass took to Lake Michigan to negotiate with the Winnebago and Chippewa tribes, the artist sketched 25 portraits at the treaty meetings at Prairie du Chien.

Lewis also contributed portraits to the History of the Indian Tribes of North America collection, prepared by Thomas L. McKenney's office, and published from 1823 to 1834.