Upper Missouri River, United States, North America
Accession Date:
31 Dec 1867
Notes:
FROM CARD: "LARGE DRESSED SKIN ORNAMENTED WITH COLOR DRAWINGS BY NATIVES. U.S. WAR DEPART. HIDATSA? LOANED: DENVER MUSEUM, MARCH 15, 1965. RETURNED: 10/6/65. LENT TO THE MINNEAPOLIS INSTITUTE OF ARTS, 8-13-92. LOAN RETURNED: AUG 26 1993. " FIGURATIVE DECORATION.
Entered in the original ledger catalog as from the War Department with location of Upper Missouri. Pictographic scenes of warfare and row of quirts painted on buffalo hide.
This object is illustrated in Fig. 151 on p. 195 of Maurer, Evan M., and Louise Lincoln. 1992. Visions of the people: a pictorial history of Plains Indian life. Minneapolis, Minn: Minneapolis Institute of Arts. This publication identifies it as a robe with war exploits, Upper Missouri, ca. 1835, native-tanned buffalo hide, and brown, red, yellow, and green pigment. The painted motifs are described in detail on p. 194 of the same publication.
This artifact is visible hanging in the upper center of photo copy negative # 90-7266, "Centennial Exposition, Indian Exhibits", 1876 photo of Smithsonian exhibit of American Indian and other artifacts in the United States Government Building at the 1876 Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia; original in Smithsonian Institution Archives Record Unit 95 Box 61 Folder 5.
Note re photos: CT Neg. # 2003-3465 and BW Neg. # 2003-3467 are a view of back (undecorated) side of the hide. All other images are of the front, decorated, side.
Illus. Fig. 11, pp. 46 and 47 in Penney, David W. 2012. The American Indian: art & culture between myth & reality. Amsterdam: Museumshop De Nieuwe Kerk. It is identified there as a pictographic buffalo robe, circa 1830, tribe unknown, Upper Missouri Region, and also described on p. 46: "The owner of this robe painted it with several different episodes of combat, perhaps the record of a lifetime. He is the figure most often repeated (seven times) in the various scenes and often scaled larger than the others. He wears a shirt with black shoulders and red underneath, short red breechcloth, fringed leggings, and a 'roach' or headdress of red deer hair, an eagle feather and a long braid hanging behind. Twice he holds a smoking pipe (vertically with the stem up and the red stone bowl down) identifying him as a leader of two war expeditions. As pipe carrier, he claims honors for all the enemies slain under his leadership, the four shadowy half figures in a row behind him. In the lower center of the robe, he confronts an enemy to the left who wears a spectacular feather headdress and a red cloth coat, and fights with a spear and shield hung with eagle feather pendants. This same scene is repeated in another robe now in Berlin clearly painted by the same artist."
