Tennessee Pryors

Sam Huston and Nathaniel Pryor

Have you seen the painting of Nathaniel Pryor and Sam Houston? It’s in OK. It’s on the Oklahoma Arts Council’s website: *. I know it’s not avant-garde — no elephant dung or inappropriate nudity. However, the historical context of the painting disturbs my equilibrium. I just have to ask questions about it. Is this based in fact or pure imagination?

Perhaps because I’m female, the first thing that disturbs me is the clothing. The Sam Houston Memorial Museum posts on their website that Houston traveled from Tennessee in 1818 to meet with President James Monroe in Washington, DC. Noted politician, and at that time Secretary of War, John C. Calhoun reprimanded Houston for dressing like an indian. In 1829 Houston was governor of Tennessee, but left his position, heading West to live with the Cherokees.  I have to assume that if he was dressing like an indian in 1818, then,  you’d expect that ten years later when he was living amongst the Native Americans that he dressed to fit in. So, is Houston the man on the left in the buck skin outfit?

If so, then Nathaniel Pryor must be the man on the right wearing the red plaid Pendleton-style jacket and the hat that looks to be straight out of an Orvis catalog! Nathaniel Pryor probably had been in contact with Indian tribes from his youth in the pioneer regions of eastern Kentucky. He was a longtime military man. He was used to walking and riding long distances with probably no more than a pack of survival supplies; he lived as a trapper, explorer, and trader. I can’t imagine he would dress like grandpa on a fishing trip to the family lake house!

I have a photo of my great-grandfather who was a cowboy. He drove cattle in Texas in the 1870’s and 1880’s. In the photo he’s a wrinkled mess (clothes right out of  his saddle bag). He also looked like he could use a shower. When you look at most men in old photos, especially during the Civil War, they look a bit unkept. Pryor and Houston look fresh and clean to the point of looking as unreal as a museum diorama.

I’m trying to understand where fantasy and reality of the event come together in this painting. The Arts website has an explanation of the lives of both men and their connection to Oklahoma, but it doesn’t say if they ever met. Sam Houston left office in Tennessee in 1829 and headed West. Nathaniel Pryor died in 1831. The window of opportunity for these men to meet was just a few years. There are accounts online of Nathaniel “Miguel” Pryor who left Louisville to find his father and namesake, but couldn’t find him in St. Louis so he headed into the Southwest. Without roads and modern communication, how would Nathaniel Pryor and Sam Houston find each other? On the river?

Unlike the idyllic flatboat scene depicted in the painting there is an account that Nathaniel Pryor and Sam Houston met over U.S. relations with the Indian tribes.  In Sam Houston with The Cherokees, 1829-1833 by Jack Gregory and Rennard Strickland it states in 1829 and 1830 “when war between the Osages and Delawares became almost inevitable John Eaton, secretary of war, appointed a commission,” with the purpose of working out the differences between the tribes. “Commandant Matthew Arbuckle, A. P. Chouteau, and Sam Houston met with Nathaniel Pryor, Osage subagent, and Clermont, the Osage principal chief, in a conference held at the mouth of the Veridgris River.”

The Raven: A Biography of Sam Houston by Marquis James gives us some insight in what Houston thought of Pryor. Houston wrote to President Andrew Jackson about Pryor’s qualifications in Indian affairs, urging that Pryor be appointed to the Indian Service. Nathaniel Pryor was appointed an Indian agent shortly before he died. Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 22 mentions that in his letter Houston referred to Nathaniel Pryor as a veteran of the Battle of New Orleans.

Ok, I’m not completely adverse to the imagination of this painting. It would be amazing to eavesdrop on the conversation between the Pryor who had traveled with Lewis and Clark, and Houston who had already been governor of Tennessee and who later (in 1836) would be the President of the Republic of Texas.

Of course the genealogist in me would love to know if Pryor and Houston were related or if their relations had known each other when they were pioneer families in the west of  Old Virginia and later on the frontier.

* After publishing this post I learned that the painting is  not available today on this link.
(Wayback Machine link)
An image of the painting is located at
http://franceshunter.wordpress.com/page/16/