This is a painted elk hide. The narrative includes a camp scene with tipis, a "sun" dance, modified to show an eagle rising above the pole structure, which has an unraised buffalo head. Warriors dressed in finery are entering the village. On the fringe a group of women sit near a fire. The perimeter depicts a buffalo hunt with the hunters on horseback using rifles. Vignettes of skinning the buffaloes are also depicted with heaps of the heads, hides and hooves separated and piled. The colors used are brown, black, red, pink, purple, blue, maroons, and green. See supplementary files in Arts of Americas office for a study of paints.

A piece of buffalo hide with fur on it.

Museum Expediton 1907, Museum Collection Fund

Records in the SI Archives of the Office of Distribution say this was transferred [to whom?] in 1867, but apparently either this is incorrect or it was later returned to the Museum.Source of the information below: Inuvialuit Pitqusiit Inuuniarutait: Inuvialuit Living History, The MacFarlane Collection website, by the Inuvialuit Cultural Resource Centre (ICRC), Inuvik, N.W.T., Canada (website credits here http://www.inuvialuitlivinghistory.ca/posts/12 ), entry on this artifact http://www.inuvialuitlivinghistory.ca/items/200 , retrieved 12-10-2019: Small robe made out of a single caribou hide with filler pieces added at the neck. This is described in the Smithsonian Institution's catalogue as a 'boy's robe'. There are hide ties near the shoulders and the bottom of the robe. One side of the garment has a thin strip of red wool cloth stitched down the centre from neck to hem and along all the outside edges. On this side and down the centre red line are eight evenly spaced sets of decorative tags. The tags are made up of two strips of hide, each strung with 3 or 4 coloured beads and with red wool tassels at the ends. Most of the beads are cylindrical shaped. On each side of the centre red line are 3 sets of tags, spaced midway between the centre line and the outside edge.