Levee Levee A levee (), dike, dyke, embankment, floodbank or stopbank is an elongated naturally occurring ridge or artificially constructed fill or wall, which regulates water levels. It is usually earthen and often parallel to the course of a river in its floodplain or along low-lying coastlines. Speakers of American English (notably in the Midwest and Deep South), use the word "levee", from the French word "levée" (from the feminine past participle of the French verb "lever", "to raise"). It originated in New Orleans a few years after the city's founding in 1718 and was later adopted by English speakers. The
General Johnson Saving a Wounded French Officer from the Tomahawk of a North American Indian British, French and Indian War"). It depicts Major General Sir William Johnson preventing a North American native warrior from taking the scalp of Baron Dieskau, a wounded and defeated French soldier lying on the ground. West was an early American painter. He claimed to have been first taught how to make paint by a Native American childhood friend who demonstrated how paint could be made by mixing clay with bear grease. This painting has fine detail on the native figure, whose plucked scalp and tattoos are shown in more detail than the Europeans' uniforms. West is known to have had