Painted by award-winning American portraitist and fine artist, Al Zerries, a distinguished member of the American Artists Professional League, Audubon Artists and The Watercolor U.S.A. Honor Society. "Chief Among Men" is one of approximately two dozen oil on canvas portraits and landscapes Zerries completed before his untimely death in 2009. This particular work was one of his last and taken from a photo he took at a local Native American heritage festival on Long Island. Zerries had his pieces shown at hundreds of national and international exhibitions. Before taking up painting in the mid-1990s, he worked for over twenty years as an art director, television producer, and creative director for several ad agencies in New York City. Prior to that, he served in the U.S. Army as a first lieutenant, and was Airborne and Ranger qualified.