Chief Black Bird From the Rees-Jones Collection at Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth

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Chief Blackbird (Wash-ing-guhsah-ba) was the leader of the Omaha Native American Indian tribe who controlled the trade routes used by Spanish, French, British and later American traders until the late 18th century. He was one of the first Plains Indian chiefs to trade with white explorers and also believed to be the first Plains Indian chief to openly question white encroachment in the region. Blackbird used trade as a means to prosper for his people and as a way to ensure that white explorers were aware they were guests on Omaha land. The Omaha were not warlike people, yet they were the first on the Great Plains to master equestrianism around 1770 and were at one point while Chief Blackbird was alive the most powerful Indian tribe in the Great Plains. Chief Blackbird died during a smallpox epidemic in 1800. In 1804 members of the Lewis and Clark Expedition were led to Chief Blackbird's burial site which sits on a bluff on the west side of the Missouri River in present day Nebraska. Blackbird Bend in western Iowa is named for Blackbird. Years later, Dallas collector Trevor Rees-Jones first became interested in art and the American West when visiting the Amon Carter Museum of American Art as a young boy. That experience led Rees-Jones to gather one of the finest private collections of art of the American West spanning the eighteenth century through the 1920s including paintings watercolors sculpture and photographs. The selection of the Rees-Jones Collection on view marks its debut showing in a museum. This object is part of "Scan The World". Scan the World is a non-profit initiative introduced by MyMiniFactory, through which we are creating a digital archive of fully 3D printable sculptures artworks and landmarks from across the globe for the public to access for free. Scan the World is an open source community effort if you have interesting items around you and would like to contribute email stw@myminifactory.com to find out how you can help. Scanned: Photogrammetry (Processed using Agisoft PhotoScan).