The Senate possesses a remarkable pair of busts of Be sheekee
(Buffalo) and Aysh-ke-bah-ke-ko-zhay (Flat Mouth) by the
virtually unknown Italian sculptor Francis Vincenti. These
Native American leaders came to Washington, D.C., in 1855 as
part of a delegation responsible for negotiating a treaty with
the United States government. On February 17, 1855, Captain Seth
Eastman (who was also an artist) wrote to Captain Montgomery C.
Meigs, superintendent of the Capitol extension, that the two
Ojibwa Indians were in the city and would consent to having
their portraits modeled in clay, after their business was
finished. The request for Be sheekee and Aysh-ke-bah-ke-ko-zhay
to pose undoubtedly came from Meigs, who wished to ship some
models of Native Americans to Rome for the guidance of Thomas
Crawford, the artist then modeling figures for the east pediment
of the Senate portico. (Whether the clay models or plaster casts
from these two specific works ever reached Crawford is not
recorded.) Meigs wrote in his journal,