Martin Sullivan, director of NPG, discusses portraits from the exhibition "Four Indian Kings."The paintings for this special installation were lent by the Portrait Gallery of Canada, a program of the Library and Archives of Canada. In 1710, a delegation of four Native American leaders--three Mohawk from the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) alliance and one Mohican from the Algonquin nations--traveled to the Court of Queen Anne in London. The delegation traveled to London with British military leaders seeking to court support against competing French and their allied Native interests in North America. To commemorate the delegates' visit, Queen Anne commissioned John Verelst, a Dutch portrait artist residing in London, to paint their official portraits. They are the earliest known surviving oil portraits from life of Native people of North America. So popular were the "Four Indian Kings" that printmaker John Simon created mezzotints after these paintings. While the "Four Kings," as they became known, were not the first Native visitors to Britain, their presence at Court and their interactions with Londoners, who treated them as celebrities, ignited the British imagination. Poems, ballads, and music were written about them. View the online exhibition at: http://npg.si.edu/exhibit/kings/slideshow/kings.htm . Recorded at NPG, November 6, 2008. Image info: Sa Ga Yeath Qua Pieth Tow, King of the Maquas, lifedates unknown / John Verelst (c. 1675-1734) / Oil on canvas, 1710 / Library and Archives Canada / Acquired with a special grant from the Canadian Government, 1977