The Plains Indians Museum is another of the museums located within the Buffalo Bill Center of the West. The last time we were here we went through this museum, but I did not pay much attention to it nor did I take any pictures. This time though, I decided to take my time in the museum and took pictures to tell the story of the Plains Indians.
This exhibition follows the lives of Plains Indians from the mid-19th century through today, presenting themes that explore aspects of life shared by many cultures. The Native people of the United States are diverse in origins, traditions, languages, histories and identities. They respect and celebrate their heritage as they create their own futures.
Of the nearly 670 Indian tribes in the United States, several hundred live in the Great Plains region that this area represents. There are many different ways to address the Native Americans -- Indian, Native American, First Peoples, Indigenous, First Nations ... what is the most accurate and respectful term to use? All are acceptable. Many people prefer to be referred to by their specific tribe. The term Native American became common in the 1960s and 1970s through laws covering the Indigenous Peoples of the United States, but there is not a single, preferred word.
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| Coyote Legend |
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| Apsáalooke (Crow) Lodges |
Apsáalooke Lodges are constructed around four main poles. After the 1880s, when the traditional bison hide became less available, canvas was used as an alternative for lodge covers. This lodge has the sides rolled up for the summer, to cool the interior. In the winter, the layers of hides on the floor, the liner, and a fire make a lodge warm, comfortable and weather-resistant.
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| Two young Crow women stand in front of canvas lodge, c. 1903-1925 |
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| Beaded clothing, bed rolls, and backrest lay inside a tipi at Crow Fair |
These are two girls' dresses. The pink one is Lakota (Sioux), South Dakota, Northern Plains, ca. 1885 with tanned deer hide, glass beads, sinew. Lakota women prefer beading in the "lane stitch" technique. By stringing multiple seed beads on a needle before attaching the thread back down, the design creates lanes of beads. The lavishly decorated dress shows the care and pride taken by the child's family.
The tan one is Tsistsistas (Southern Cheyenne), South Plains, ca. 1880. It's native-tanned deer hide, pigment, pony beads, tin tones, seed beads. Children's clothing echoed the current fashions worn by the adults of a tribe.
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| Cradleboards |
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| Apatoshi Pikuni (Blackfoot) boys with bows and arrows, c. 1885 |
During play, while boys focused on hunting and war, little girls focused on domestic skills. The idea was to make a connection between the child's play and the future adult's work.
Once several of us girls made ourselves a play-village with our tiny tipis. Of course our children were dolls, and our horses dogs, and yet we managed to make our village look very real. ~~ Pretty Shield, Absaroke (Crow), recounting her childhood, 1931
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| Hoop & Arrow Game |
Boys and men played games that developed their skills as hunters and warriors. In one game, the goal was to hurl an arrow into the center of a rolling hoop. Points were awarded according to which colored portion of the hoop fell on the arrow.
Every adult in the village played a role in a child's development and education. Grandparents were especially important. They cared for the children, made them toys, and were great sources of cultural knowledge and wisdom, which they passed on through instruction, stories, and games.
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| Tsistsistas (Southern Cheyenne) boys playing hatchieb. Spotted Horse Camp, Oklahoma, c. 1902 |
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| Cradleboard |
Ute, Northern Plains, ca. 1885. Tanned deer hide, glass beads, willow, brass, glass bottle, cowrie shells, cartridge cases, tin, coins. Trinkets were added to cradleboards to entertain babies with sights and sounds. Mothers also hung natal amulets, which contained the child's umbilical cord.
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| Sioux woman and child on horseback pulling travois |
Moving camp ~~ The night before they move, women packed family belongings. After breakfast, the women took down and packed tipi covers, backrests, bedding and other furnishings on horses and travois. The hide bags and parfleches used to pack dried meat, tallow, pemmican, berries, and tobacco served as storage containers. Tipi poles were dragged by horses.
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| Iron Teeth was 95 years old at the time of this photograph c. 1926 |
Cheyenne Migration ~~ My grandmother told me that when she was young our people did not have any horses. When they needed to go anywhere, they put their packs upon dogs or on little travois drawn by dogs. The people themselves had to walk ... But when they got horses, they could move more easily from place to place ... Our people traveled over the whole country between Elk River (Yellowstone) and Mexico. ~~ Iron Teeth, Tis'tsis'tas (Cheyenne), 1926
Why are the figures fired clay and one color? The monochromatic figures intentionally look this way to avoid stereotyping Indigenous peoples and their many skin and hair colors. The models are created in natural earth tones to highlight the museum objects.
Traveling Together ~~ Scouts led the way for the traveling bands, scanning the landscape for signs of wild game or enemies. The group was protected on both sides and behind by warriors carrying their weapons. Women rode in the center, tending to the travois, while older boys drove the horses. The babies were carried on their mother's backs, in cradles, or on travois. Children rode horses or rode in travois, getting out to run from time to time.
Dogs: Friends and Helpers ~~ For thousands of years, dogs served as guardians, hunters and companions to Native Peoples. Dogs were essential to maintaining the seasonal rounds before horses arrived on the Plains. On a travois, a large dog could carry a load of about 75 pounds of family belongings. Dogs continued to carry lighter loads even after horses arrived on the Plains.
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| Lakota woman with feather staff and dog pulling travois, 1880-1890 |
Gifts of the Buffalo ~~ Buffalo meat was eaten fresh, preserved by drying in the sun, or made into pemmican, a mixture of dried meat, fat, and berries. The remainder -- hide, bones, hair, skull, sinews, hooves, horns, tail, paunch and bladder -- also had practical or ceremonial uses.
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| Buffalo hide tipis, Amoskapi (Blackfeet), Montana, 1870s |
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| Rope, Lakota (Sioux), Northern Plains, c. 1875 |
Older women specialized in twisting and braiding buffalo hair into ropes and lariats. Ropes were also made of horsehair and buffalo rawhide.
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| Lakota women stretching hide for a tipi, c 1870 |
Sources of Honor ~~ A man's prestige was based on his accomplishments as a warrior and hunter. Plains Indians traditionally waged war in defense or retaliation against enemy attacks, to preserve and expand hunting territories, and to capture horses, which were essential for hunting and as indicators of wealth. A man was acclaimed for his success as a hunter, and he gained war honors through a system of counting "coups," or acts of bravery against the enemy.
Preparing the Meat ~~ "They had to work very fast because they didn't want the meat to spoil. Then the men folk start cutting up the meat. And our winter encampment would be just a short distance, always by the river though. Then the women would come with the dog travois and start loading the meat on the dog travoises. Take the meat down to the water and clean it. They built what we called the racks -- dry meat racks. The meat was sliced and hung on these racks, to either be dried by the sun or smoke dried." ~~ Curly Bear Wagner, Amskapi Piikani (Blackfeet), 1999
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| Buffalo Horn Bonnet, Northern Plains, c. 1840 |
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| Dance of the Mandan Indians |
The Mandan Okipa ceremony dramatized tribal origins and the creation of the earth, its plants, animals, and people. The four-day ceremony took place each summer after the corn was planted, before the tribal buffalo hunt. Part of the ceremony was the Buffalo Dance in which men wearing buffalo masks and hide breechcloths impersonated buffalo bulls. The ceremony ensured an abundance of buffalo and brought the herds closer to the villages in order that they could be hunted.
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| Buffalo Horn Bonnet, Upper Missouri Region, c. 1830-40 |
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| Mato-Tope, A Mandan Chief |
Among the Mandan and Hidatsa, "The buffalo played a role in the older men's Buffalo Bull society which had many responsibilities, including teaching young boys to be adults through learning the prayers, hunting skills, and the making of implements used in the hunt and for warfare."
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| Split Horn Bonnet, Amskapi Pikuni (Blackfeet) Northern Plains, c. 1880 |
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| Wets It, Nakota (Assiniboine), 1898 |
The plains are large and wide. We are the children of the plains, it is our home and the Buffalo has been our food always. ~~ Crowfoot, Amskapi Pikuni (Blackfeet), 1877
It is believed that the buffalo communicate with the people through dreams or visions and are called upon during hunger, war, illness, and other times of need. Buffalo horn bonnets manifest the animal's spiritual significance.
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| Buffalo Horn Bonnet Amskapi Pikuni (Blackfeet), Northern Plains, c. 1850 |
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| Touch the Cloud (Cheyenne), 1898 |
The relationship with the buffalo to the people of the Plains is commemorated and celebrated in traditions, stories, and songs transmitted through generations. Many tribes consider the buffalo a sibling and provider of life because it provides spiritual protection, nourishment and raw materials.
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| Buffalo Horn Bonnet, 1890 |
For all Plains Indians peoples, the buffalo was the center of their economic, cultural, and spiritual practices. Tribes preserved their spiritual connections to the buffalo through prayers, rituals, and ceremonies. Horned bonnet wearers communicated with the buffalo and had special powers related to the animal which was given to them through visions or dreams.
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| Buffalo Horn Bonnet, 1885 |
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| Chief Big Spring & Wolf Eagle (aka Buffalo Chief), 1930 |
Ceremonial leaders communicated with the buffalo through visions and dreams. Among the Blackfeet people, an iniskin, or small segment of an ammonite fossil resembling a buffalo, was used in special ceremonies to call buffalo to jumps and places where they could be surrounded and killed. Tribes honored the buffalo in death and gave thanks for their sacrifice.
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| Hidatsa dancers, 1907 |
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| Fourth of July Singers at Elbowoods, North Dakota 1908 |
The Hidatsa lived in earth lodge villages along the Missouri River with their allies, the Mandan and Arikara. There, they grew gardens of corn, beans, squash, and tobacco, hunted buffalo, and established their villages as major trade centers for the Great Plains.
My mother's earth lodge -- for the lodge belonged to the women of the household -- was a large one, with floor measuring more than forty feet across. In the center was the fireplace ... We thought an earth lodge was alive and had a spirit like a human body, and that its front was like a face, with the door for the mouth. ~~ Maxidiwiac (Buffalo Bird Woman), Nuxbaaga (Hidatsa), c. 1910
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| Lodges at Like-a-Fishhook village being dismantled, July 1887 |
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| Winter Village of the Minatarees (Hidatsa), 1840-43 |
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| Standing Bear, Rose Two Bonnets,, Lula Tow Bonnets, and Louisa Standing Bear, Lakota (Sioux), 1919 |
When Plains Indians were assigned to reservations during the late 1800s, they were expected to "settle" on single-family plots -- men were urged to farm, and women were taught to keep house like Euro-Americans. Communal camp life and ceremonies were discouraged or banned, and families were advised to abandon tipis and earth lodges for houses. The move into square houses brought fundamental changes for Indian people, which each family and extended community faced in its own way.
Standing Bear's log house, pictured above, was the inspiration for this exhibition. Built in 1911, on allotment number 936 of the Wounded Knee District, it was surrounded by vegetable gardens, fields of corn and alfalfa, and pasture. It was a comfortable home and refuge for family and friends, a prosperous center for collective productivity, and a gathering place for members of Standing Bear's new reservation community. In the furnishings and function of reservation houses like this, tradition and innovation coexisted.
These are pictures from inside of Standing Bear's log house:
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| Child's vest and pants, Lakota (Sioux) Deer Hide, glass beads, cloth, 1885 |
Although vests did not become a regular part of the Plains Indians wardrobe until the 1870s, these simple garments were soon transformed with elaborate, tribally specific beadwork. This vest and pants exhibit the complexity of reservation-era Lakota design, incorporating decorative lines, diamonds, and forked forms that seem to grow organically from their triangular bases.
The elaborate beadwork of the reservation period reflects the successful preservation of cultural values and traditions in the face of strict assimilation policies. Beautifully crafted clothing and household goods represent personal accomplishment as well as a concern for community welfare and tribal solidarity.
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| Purse |
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| Bag |
Small, highly embellished bags made useful containers for keeping tools close at hand. When traveling away from home, men tied similar bags to their bows.
When reservation life disrupted traditional economies, women earned much needed income by selling beadwork. The commercial market for Indian art increased dramatically with the completion of the transcontinental railroad, the development of national parks, and increased tourist travel across the plains. Plains women responded with new designs and the application of beadwork to ready-made purses and bags.
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| Traveling Medicine Doll, Crow, Pryor, Montana 2008 |
The doll and its accessories represent the moving of a Crow family camp. The birch tripod sticks and pole symbolize tipi poles. The doll and its miniature belongings are special objects, not toys, thought to bring good fortune during a move.
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| Star Blanket |
I find strength, faith and dignity through my heritage -- yet I also find these in other cultures -- and I derive inspiration and motivation from them as well. In my humble opinion, I'm just an artist who happens to be Native American. I find myself in a unique place of receiving blessings from two worlds. My goal and desire are to have more Native American artists to be in the place. ~~ Oreland C. Joe, Sr.
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| Survivor's of Big Foot's Band after the Wounded Knee Massacre |
December 29, 1890 ~~ Wounded Knee Massacre. The Seventh Cavalry, armed with four Hotchkiss guns, attacked Big Foot's Ghost Dance encampment on the Pine Ridge reservation, killing more than 300 men, women and children.
Boarding Schools ~~
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Girls' Dormitory at the Crow Agency Boarding School on the Crow Indian Reservation, Montana 1898
Boys Dormitory at the Crow Agency Boarding School on the Crow Indian Reservation, Montana 1898
Indian boarding schools were established throughout the U.S. to assimilate young Native students into the civilized world. Schools like Carlisle removed students from their families, communities, and tribal influences.
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| First Beef Issue at Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, SD, 1891 |
On June 25, 1876, the Battle of Greasy Grass (Little Big Horn) occurred. Lakota, Cheyenne, and Arapaho warriors, led by Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse, defeated Lt. Col. George A Custer's Seventh Cavalry. Custer and over 260 of his men were killed.
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| Buffalo Hide Coat, 1880 |
Commercial hide hunters and the U.S. military began began mass extermination of the American bison in the 1860s. By 1883, fewer than 1,000 wild bison roamed the Plains.
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| Hide Hunter skinning buffalo in Northern Montana, 1882 |
November 29, 1864 ~~ Sand Creek Massacre. The Third Colorado Cavalry under Col. John M. Chivington killed over 160 Cheyenne and Arapaho, mostly women and children, in an attack on Black Kettle's peaceful camp along Sand Creek.
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| Northern Pacific Railroad traveling through tribal land in Montana, 1882 |
May 20, 1862 ~~ Passage of the Homestead Act. The act encouraged settlement on Indian lands by granting settlers 160-acre parcels of land at $1.25 an acre.
Plains delegations traveled to Washington to try, through diplomacy, to defend their lands and other tribal interests. Beginning in 1870, when he addressed the terms of the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868, Red Cloud made a dozen trips to the capital. Oglala Lakota (Sioux) delegation (from left): Red Dog, Little Wound, Red Cloud, American Horse, Red Shirt, and interpreter John Bridgeman in Washington, 1880.
Hide painting of the Battle of Little Big Horn. Lakota (Sioux), Northern Plains, ca. 1895. "There was no dancing or celebrating of any kind in any of the camps that day. Too many people were in mourning." ~~ Wooden Legs, Tsistsistas (Northern Cheyenne)
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| Portrait of Sitting Bull, Hunkpapa Lakota Chief (Sioux) 1887 |
September 17, 1851 ~~ Treaty of Fort Laramie. The treaty defined territories for the Sioux, Cheyenne, Arapaho, Crow, Assiniboine, Gros Ventre, Mandan, and Arikara, and recognized the right of the U.S. government to build roads and forts in exchange for promised annuities and protection from depredations by American citizens.
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| Amoskapi Pikuni (Blackfeet) boys brought to St. Peter's Mission by Father Imoda, 1885 |
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| Mato-Tope, A Mandan Chief, 1832-34 |
Listen well what I have to say ... Think of your wives, children, brothers, sisters, friends ... are all dead or dying ... caused by those dogs, the whites. Think of all that my friends and rise all together and not leave one of them alive. ~~ Mato-Tope, Numakiki (Mandan), on the day he died of smallpox in 1837
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| Drama on the High Plains |
Allan Houser carved and modeled sculpture drawings of his Native heritage: "My inspiration came from the stories that were told to me by my father." The strength and pride of both the warrior and horse reflect the qualities represented by the Plains Indians Museum Advisory Board, established in 1976. The Advisory Board is one of the first museum boards in North America to include Native members. This object was the first purchase by the board.
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| Bear Claw Necklace, John Young Bear, Meskwaki, Tama, Iowa ca. 1920 |
A bear claw necklace is a symbol of power to be worn by a respected leader. The claws represent the bear's strength and courage while the otter fur signifies power over both land and water. The animals' qualities guide the wearer during warfare, treaty negotiations, and other important events during his lifetime.
Distinguished Pawnee, Otoe, and Omaha men wore bear claw necklaces made from otters and the long, broad claws of grizzly bears that once roamed the Central and Eastern Plains. The necklaces were emblems of their accomplishments, honors, and roles as leaders.
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| Tipi ornaments |
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| Eagle Chief, Chahiksichahiks (Pawnee) |
During the 18th and 19th centuries, European and American governments presented tribal leaders with peace medals and pipe tomahawks on the occasions of treaty signings or agreements. Peace medals and pipe tomahawks signified the prestigious positions of tribal leaders, who were often photographed with these presentation pieces.
Women's Societies ~~ The sacred and ceremonial significance of the art of Plains women pervaded their everyday lives. Artistic abilities were considered gifts, often acquired through dreams or visions. Lakota, Arapaho, and Cheyenne women formed quilling and beading societies which ensured that artistic traditions and skills would be passed on to future generations. Membership in a society, or guild, was reserved for a privileged group of talented and honorable women.
Beadworking overshadowed quilling after the 1830s, when glass beads became available through Euro-American trade. Contemporary artists carry on both traditions using classic designs, often embellishing them with personal interpretations. Moccasins, dresses, shirts, and pipe bags are popular among tourists and collectors, but they also find more traditional uses during powwows and on ceremonial occasions.
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| Cheyenne woman thinning a hide, Lame Deer, Montana ca. 1904 |
Preparing an animal hide for quilling or beading is tedious work; it involves removing the hair, scraping excess flesh, dressing (with a brain and fat mixture), stretching, and drying. It takes almost four days to prepare a single hide. Women's society members took pride in the number of hides they had worked on in a lifetime and marked their tools with a notch or tack for each completed hide.
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| Dress & Moccasins |
Made with tanned elk hide and glass beads. We resolved that my example we would make our own dresses in order to inspire the many talented Eastern Shoshone artists to revive the art. ~~ Sandra Swallow-Moradi, So-soreh (Eastern Shoshone), 1991
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| Shirt, dyed porcupine quills, tanned deer hide and fur |
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| The Owl Dance, Absaroke (Crow) 1905 |
Traditional social gatherings, ceremonies, and warrior society dances have merged into a celebration focused on the unity of families and tribe -- the powwow. On these traditional foundations, individuals build dances, music and clothing with personal innovation and creativity.
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| Sweat Lodge |
A sweat lodge ceremony is performed to cleanse and strengthen the body, mind and spirit. It may be used for healing ceremonies, in conjunction with a vision or quest, or as part of the Sun Dance. A sweat lodge is made of a bent willow frame covered with buffalo hides. Hot rocks are placed in a hollowed area in the center of the lodge's dirt floor. Tribes such as the Lakota believe that the hot stones in the lodge have spirit, or "breath" that is released in the form of steam when water is poured on them.
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| Sacagawea |
Sacajawea was born around 1784 in the Lemhi Shoshone Tribe located in Idaho. Sacajawea was kidnapped as a young girl by Hidatsa Indians. She was later sold as a slave to Toussant Charbonneau who claimed her as his wife. Sacajawea joined her husband as an interpreter for the Lewis & Clark Expedition. Her name means boat launcher.
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