Celebrating Edmonia Lewis for #BlackHistoryMonth! The first internationally recognized woman sculptor of Native American (Ojibwa) and African American heritage, Lewis spent most of her career in Rome and led an extraordinary life. Her father was of Haitian of African descent and her mother was a member of the Chippewa tribe. Formed by the progressive values of the abolitionist schools she attended, Lewis made her early reputation sculpting portrait medallions and busts of abolitionists. In this pair of works, Lewis portrays the heroes of the enormously popular poem 'The Song of Hiawatha,' published by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow in 1855. Neoclassical in style, the Indigenous identity of the figures is only evident in the feathers in their hair and the fur trim of their clothing. Hiawatha was an #Ojibwa warrior who fell in love with Minnehaha of the Dakota tribe, whose name means laughing water. Today Edmonia Lewis’s portrait graces a US postage stamp. - Edmonia Lewis, Minnehaha, 185...