Immediately following the Mexican cession of New Mexico to the United States in 1848, Anglo-American anthropologists began working in the region, eager to learn of its rich cultural heritage. Field collectors for the great ethnographic museums of the east coast may have encouraged local Pueblo peoples to add figural ceramic forms to their repertoire of finely painted jars and bowls, objects that subsequently became very popular among tourists who started visiting Santa Fe via the rail line that was completed in 1880. The railroad also brought inspiration to local artists, who represented white tourists and traveling circus performers in clay. This two-headed, four armed, bearded figure, painted in the distinctive palette of Cochiti Pueblo potters, wears tights and a bandolier, suggesting a representation of such a newcomer to the region, possibly a specific sideshow or circus performer. Such objects were bought by avid collectors who, seeking \"authentic Indian\" curios, were unknowingly acquiring Anglo caricatures. Given rich local traditions of clowning and humor, the irony was unlikely to have gone unnoticed by the Cochiti artists responsible for this work.
","remarks":null},{"texttype":"Online","textpurpose":"Gallery Label","textentryhtml":"As the rapid advance of settler colonialism made clear by the mid-nineteenth century, Indigenous life in North America was endangered. Various artistic projects arose to document the supposedly doomed Native Americans, such as Inman’s painted catalogue of diverse Indigenous sitters, and later, in the commemorative mode of sculptural silhouette, Warner’s portrait medallions. Inman’s paintings depicted Native American leaders who travelled to Washington, DC, to negotiate territorial treaties, which were often disregarded by American lawmakers. Warner portrays Hin-Mah-Toó-Yah-Lat-Kekht in a medallion format often utilized to memorialize deceased subjects. Until just before the medallion was made, however, the chief was actively—and successfully—resisting capture by US armed forces seeking the removal of his people from ancestral lands. In an ironic reversal, a Cochiti Pueblo artist produced this humorous, two-headed likeness of a white newcomer to the Southwest, which was marketed to Anglo collectors seeking authentic “Indian” curios, and who thus unknowingly acquired caricatures of themselves.\n","remarks":"AMER1_23-27_WLA Day 1 Cataloguing- group chat for y1993-2, L.2020.1.1, L2020.1.2, and PU 7413"},{"texttype":"Online","textpurpose":"Provenance","textentryhtml":"[Aaron Gold’s Provision House, Santa Fe (NM), by 1880-1881 [1]]; probably acquired from the above by Rev. Dr. Sheldon Jackson (1834-1909), 1880-1881; donated to the Princeton Museum of Natural History, 1882-1885.","remarks":null}],"datebegin":1875,"sortnumber":"U 7413P","published_date":"2026-02-11 12:19:22.855824","objectid":57946,"dimensions":"h. 63.5 cm., w. 39.0 cm., d. 21.0 cm. (25 x 15 3/8 x 8 1/4 in.)","on_view":true}