Description
In March 1844, Joc-O-Sot or Walking Bear, a chief of the Meskwaki nation of Iowa, accompanied a Dr. Collyer at his lecture at Mr. Davey’s Rooms, 1 Broad Street, Bristol. Joc-O-Sot had been wounded in Black Hawk’s War of 1832, a conflict between the United States and a group of Sauks, Meskwakis, and Kickapoos who had reclaimed tribal land in Illinois. Since then, he had been touring the US as part of a theatrical troupe before travelling to England. Calling him a “fine specimen,” the Bristol Mercury described him as “upwards of six feet high, straight as an arrow, and, when attired in the picturesque dress of his country, with his war paint on, is well-calculated to realize the conceptions of the Indian ‘brave’.” Joc-O-Sot eventually joined George Catlin’s show in London and met with Queen Victoria in June before falling ill, possibly with pneumonia. He returned to the US and died in Cleveland in August 1844.
Bibliographic sources
“Red Indians,” Bristol Mercury, 9 March 1844, 8.