FROM CARD: "LONG BUFFALO HIDE COAT, WITH LONG SLEEVES; BODY OF COAT IN 3 PIECES SEWN TOGETHER - 1 EACH SIDE, 1 INSERTED AS GORE IN LOWER PORTION OF BACK; SLEEVES SEPARATE PIECES SEWN TO BODY. ATTACHED COLLAR (FRAGMENTARY.). DECORATION: ALL PAINTED DECORATION ON BODY OF GARMENT BELOW SHOULDERS, CONSISTS OF BORDER AT SIDES AND BOTTOM, AND BILATERALLY SYMMETRICAL PATTERN ABOVE AND WITHIN BORDER; LARGE 'SUN SYMBOL' IN CENTER OF BACK, OTHER MOTIVES LARGE DOUBLE CURVES, LARGE AND SMALL INCURVED DOUBLE-CURVES IN HEART-LIKE FORMS; TRIANGLES, SMALL CIRCLES; AND BLACK AND RED PARFLECHE-LIKE FORMS IN BORDER. COLORS - RED, BLACK AND SIZE MARKING. LIGHT AREAS OF HIDE AND REMNANTS OF STITCHES INDICATE THERE WERE ONCE 3 BANDS OF BEAD OR QUILLWORK ENDING IN ROSETTES AT TOP OF BACK; AND BANDS OVER ARMS, NO LONGER PRESENT. COMPARE WITH SIMILAR COAT NO. 386523. AN UNUSUAL TYPE, HITHERTO NOT DESCRIBED. THE BUFFALO HIDE INDICATES ITS USE WITHIN BUFFALO RANGE OF CA. 1830. STYLE OF PAINTING CONTAINS BOTH WOODLAND AND PLAINS ELEMENTS. PROBABLY FROM NORTHEASTERN PLAINS OR WESTERN WOODLANDS. - JOHN C. EWERS - JAN. 15, 1948. COMPARE WITH SIMILAR COAT - NO. 386,523. [BLACK AND WHITE] PHOT NEGS.: NO. 31648A (WHOLE COAT); 31648 (LEFT SIDE.)" FOR COMPARISON SEE METIS COAT (ETHNOGRAPHY 917 FROM THE BRITISH MUSEUM), ILLUS. IN FIG. 249, P. 235 IN FIRST PEOPLES, FIRST CONTACTS, NATIVE PEOPLES OF NORTH AMERICA BY J.C.H. KING, HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS, 1999. Identified as possibly Cree or Metis manufacture by Morgan Baillargeon, Canadian Museum of Civilization, 2009.
See also coat with similiar painted decoration illus. Fig. 2.1 p. 56 and Fig. 2.2 p. 60 in "Crossing Worlds: Hide Coats, Relationships, and Identity in Rupert's Land and Britain" by Laura Peers, Chapter 2 in Object Lives and Global Histories in Northern America: Material Culture in Motion c. 1780–1980 . Lemire, Beverly, Peers, Laura, and Whitelaw, Anne, eds. Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2021. Coat is in collection of the Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford, # 1951.2.19. The Pitt Rivers coat is described as being cut somewhat like a European greatcoat but with a central vertical triangular panel in the center back skirt to add fullness. It was probably made near the Red River Settlement by Cree-Metis people between 1820 - 1860. Coat E386522 has signs of formerly having attached quillwork and/or beadwork. The Pitt Rivers coat has its quillwork still present, and its quillwork resembles the quillwork now attached to shirt E386505 and E386506 and the quillwork with shirt E386509.
