"Virginia Indian"

In the collection of the Virginia Historical Society in Richmond is a seven-foot tall wooden statue known as the "Virginia Indian." It is of the type formerly found in front of stores that sold cigars, presumably because the British knew that tobacco was indigenous to the Americas, where it had primarily a ritual use. Columbus had taken some tobacco seeds back to Europe with him, where it was grown as a medicine that helped people relax. Tobacco soon became an important cash crop for the settlers at Jamestown after British colonist John Rolfe developed a strain that lent itself to commercial production. 

This particular statue made its way to Louisiana, where it came to the attention of the Historical Society and was purchased by them. Its beautifully sculpted and obviously African features have been explained away in a Society publication as resulting from the sculptor's inability to properly depict Indians.