This Sauk and Fox chief is believed to have visited Washington in the autumn of 1837 when large Indian delegations streamed in and out of the capital. At one time seventy-four chiefs and warriors of various tribes held councils for days before the harried President or Secretary of War could grant them an audience. The Sauk and Fox party alone numbered twenty-six warriors, four women and four children. Earlier that fall another delegation of Sauk and Fox headed by two famous chiefs, Black Hawk and Keokuk, had "smoked a pipe with the Great Father."

That winter there were more Indians than Charles Bird King could paint, so G. Cooke, his pupil, did some of their portraits.