Chicago Magazine: The Deadly Encounter of Fort Dearborn

I did this project last month for Kim Thornton at Chicago Magazine titled ‘The Massacre at Fort Dearborn’. The assignment asked for two illustrations. The first, an expansive double-page landscape of Fort Dearborn, and the other, a portrait of William Wells, a captian in the U.S. Military.

The massacre was between the Native Americans, and the American Army (go figure) and was particularly brutal. The story of goes that Wells was abducted (or saved?) as a child by Native American Indians and raised by them. He acted as a translator and liaison between the native tribes and the US government. As an adult he joined with his real brother in the US military, became a captain, and warned the US govt that the British were negotiating with the Indians against them.

He is considered by the Americans as a hero of the Fort Dearborn Massacre; Native Americans consider him a traitor. When the Native Americans found out what he had done, he dressed himself in Indian fashion, and painted his face black in anticipation of death. His opponents, although considering him a traitor to their cause, nonetheless reportedly ate his heart to gain some of his courage. WOW!