"The Eagle of Delight" Hayne Hudjihini by James Otto Lewis

"The Eagle of Delight" Hayne Hudjihini by James Otto Lewis

Hayne Hudjihini or Eagle of Delight (c. 1795 – 1822) was a prominent Otoe woman from what is now Nebraska.

The daughter of a chief, Hayne Hudjihini belonged to the Eagle clan.[1] She became one of the five wives of Chief Sų Manyi Kathi, or Shaumonekusse (Otoe, ca. 1785–1837),[2] who belonged to the Bear clan.
In 1822, Hayne Hudjihini accompanied her husband with an Indian delegation of chiefs to Washington D.C., where they met James Monroe, the President of the United States. She was described by those who met her as beautiful and charming. The Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) commissioned Charles Bird King to paint portraits of Hudjihini and Shaumonekusse.
Although the original portrait of Eagle of Delight was destroyed in a fire at the Smithsonian Institution in 1865, a patron donated King's personal copy to the White House in 1962. The portrait now hangs in the White House Library.[6] There is a portrait of the same subject by Henry Inman on view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 756. This rare portrayal of a Native American woman, Hayne Hudjihini, Eagle of Delight—wife of Sumonyeacathee, Chief of the Otoe-Missouria people—emphasizes her distinctive beauty and bearing.

James Otto Lewis (February 3, 1799 – November 2, 1858) was an American engraver and painter who was noted for his portraits of Native American leaders and other figures of the American frontier.[1] Lewis began his engraving career in Philadelphia about 1815.

From 1819 to at least 1834, Lewis worked in the west, what was then Michigan Territory, including present-day states of Indiana and Wisconsin. 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. He published copies of his work in The Aboriginal Port Folio in Philadelphia, between 1835 and 1836.

This piece measures 19 by 15 in frame and the piece itself 18 x 13 and weighs3 lbs.

Without taking the frame apart for inspection it is believed these to be lithographs. They were previously owned by another local resident.