Blackfoot (Niitsitapi, Siksikaitsitapi), Piegan (Piikani) Search this
Object Type:
Shirt
Place:
Not Given, Montana, United States, North America
Accession Date:
28 Mar 1892
Notes:
Recorded in the original accession file as: 1 Piegan Suit, 1892, $25.00
Two shirts in this collection (E153,589 and E153,590) are painted with lozenges with squiggly tails, usually interpreted in the literature as “water bugs” or tadpoles. However, a late 19th century label for 153,589 reports that the figures represent “camass” (i.e. camas root), presumably based on information received from the donor Pratt. According to personal communication from Arni Brownstone in 2020, both scholars Hugh Dempsey and Colin Taylor reported that such figures at times represented the prairie or wild turnip, which had a role in the Blackfoot Sun Dance.