Yellow Corn, Shehek-Shote’s Wife

New-York Historical Society

This is Yellow Corn, wife of Sheheke-shote, the principal chief of Mitutanka, the Mandan village closest to Fort Mandan. She and their sons joined the chief on a trip to Washington to meet President Jefferson. They were escorted by the resident trader, interpreter, and mediator René Jusseaume, who also took his wife and family.

Captain Lewis commissioned this portrait of Yellow Corn and a similar one of Sheheke for his planned publication of the Expedition’s journals. Of course, Lewis never completed the project and the portraits were not included in the 1814 edition, edited by Nicholas Biddle.

The portrait is held today within the collection of the New-York Historical Society. The work was created with black and white chalk on paper by Charles B.J.F. de Saint-Memin who lived in Washington City at the time.