Moses, Chief of the Okinokans

Olin Levi Warner

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

"Moses, Chief of the Okinokans" was one of seven portraits of Native Americans that Warner modeled in 1891 while in Oregon. In 1893, Warner's friend Charles Erskine Scott Wood stated that Moses was chief of the Ilnamehin or Okinakan tribe, a local branch of the Nez Percé nation. In fact, the Okanagons belonged to the inland division of the Salishan linguistic stock in the Pacific Northwest. Because of a striking resemblance, Moses was often nicknamed "Henry Ward Beecher."

The American Wing

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The American Wing's ever-evolving collection comprises some 20,000 works of art by African American, Euro American, Latin American, and Native American men and women. Ranging from the colonial to early-modern periods, the holdings include painting, sculpture, works on paper, and decorative arts—including furniture, textiles, ceramics, glass, silver, metalwork, jewelry, basketry, quill and bead embroidery—as well as historical interiors and architectural fragments.

Metropolitan Museum of Art