Oratam, Sachem of the Hackensacks

[DPowell]

Oratam, Sachem of the Hackensacks  
Oratam was about 32 years old in 1609. He became Hackensack chief after the Dutch eliminated the leadership of his community in a brutal massacre at Pavonia (Jersey City) in 1643. Near the end of his life, he gave the land, which now covers Ridgefield Park, Bogota and Teaneck, north to Cedar Lane, to his interpreter, Sarah Kiersted. The village of Ackinsack stood on Kipps Bend in Teaneck. Oratam died at nearly 90 years of age in 1667.
In 1921, Hungarian sculptor John Ettl, of Leonia, cast his noble bronze bust of the Hackensack Chief, Oratam. A bas-relief on the back base of the statue depicts his people clustered around a Western tipi, a scene owing more to Western movie scripts than to inconvenient facts of history.
Statue in the collections of the BCHS. It is believed that 4 copies of the statue were made at the time.
- Kevin Wright

[BLeafe]

About 10 years ago, I bought the below 6" ceramic piece on eBay from someone in Canada. I was told a few years later that it was created and sold by BCHS.

Can I assume that it was based on the Ettl statue? Do you know when was it offered for sale and how many were created?



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[DPowell]

We think they were made in 50s and 60s. There were different reproductions made.

[ancientone]

silly question but what did they use as a model for making the statue? Were there any drawings of him that survived or did they just make up a face? I've always wondered since there isn't any documentation stating where and when he died and where his is buried.

[Steenrapie]

The representation is purely from the artist's imagination. No one knows exactly when he died or where he was buried.