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- 200823-01 Early Chippewa Box with damage and letter - Made by "Widow of Chief Buffalo"
200823-01 Early Chippewa Box with damage and letter - Made by "Widow of Chief Buffalo"
SOLD A remarkably early box with outstanding provenance. A museum item.
Early Chippewa Box with damage as pictured.
With early note:
"This little box was made in 1840 for Lewis Ueall (sic) by a Chippewa squaw the widow of Chief Buffalo who visited Washington during on (during) Pre J.L. Adams administration in behalf of his people. While making it, the squaw was seated in a canoe at the end during a passage up the St. Croix River down the Bule to Lake Superior. At this time the Sioux and Chippewas were at war."
ca. 1840
2 3/4" h x 2 1/2" x 3 3/4" w
Chief Buffalo (Ojibwe: Ke-che-waish-ke/Gichi-weshkiinh – "Great-renewer" or Peezhickee/Bizhiki – "Buffalo"; also French, Le Boeuf) (1759? – September 7, 1855) was a major Ojibwa leader, born at La Pointe in Lake Superior's Apostle Islands, in what is now northern Wisconsin, USA.
Recognized as the principal chief of the Lake Superior Chippewa (Ojibwa) for nearly a half-century until his death in 1855, he led his nation into a treaty relationship with the United States Government. He signed treaties in 1825, 1826, 1837, 1842, 1847, and 1854. He was instrumental in resisting the United States' efforts to remove the Ojibwa to western areas and secured permanent Indian reservations for his people near Lake Superior in what is now Wisconsin.