Early Indigenous Literatures

SN-P8

At the time of sale at the Chicago World's Fair in 1893, a portrait of Simon Pokagon was included with the birch bark booklet and a separate piece of text entitled “Brief History of Simon Pokagon.” The portrait, in contrast to the "Brief History" does not assert Pokagon's "authentic Indigeneity". Instead, Pokagon sits for the portrait in clothes that would not signify his Potawatomi heritage to a white audience, but rather sporting clothes more familiar and understood as western garb. He sits in a dignified position as an author here, captured from the shoulders up. However, not wanting to obfuscate his Indigeneity, immediately below his name is his ascribed status as "Potawatomi Chief."

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