Prints and Photographs Collection
Sam Houston
In 1809, at age 16, Houston ran away from home to live among the Cherokees. They adopted him and gave him the name Colonneh, or "the Raven." Ever after, Houston considered the Cherokees his surrogate family. He returned to the Cherokees in 1829, after his first marriage ended in disaster, and lived with them for three years before gradually reinvolving himself in the white world. This miniature was painted in Washington, D.C. in 1830, and depicts Houston as an ambassador for the Cherokee nation.
