Florence B. and Carl L. Selden Fund

Bequest of W.S. Morton Mead

Brooklyn Museum Collection

Also called a storage bag, tipi bag or possible bag. The beads are sewn with sinew in a 'lazy stitch'. Kroeber called the design a transverse bar or lengthened checker pattern. Bag is beaded on one side with a decoration of crossed and abstracted forms in red, blue, gold and green. The edges are also beaded with metal jingles and orange dyed horsehair decorations. The two-ended pitchfork type design is typically Sioux. It is Central Plains but not Cheyenne or Arapaho. Bead workers would also do this type of beading to show off their expertise so some were also made to be ornamental or given away as gifts.

The object is a miniature teepee cover. On a natural background there are painted designs in brown, pink, black and grey. They represent a battle scene (possibly a horse raid) and include two mounted Indians, two leading horses, and two fallen warriors. Also shown are four warriors with rifles, hoof prints of horses, and, near the top, three stylized feather designs. Good example of miniature tipi even though not made quite correctly-too upright. Design: hoof prints indicate movement. The person hurt and lying down might be Pawnee or Osage based on the hairstyle and might have been done in by the one with the rifle. One is wearing military pants. The horses tails are tied and decorated and must be favorite warhorses as their manes are also tied. Can't tell who or what the person with the lines on his face is. Dots might indicate a person who had small pox.

This is a muslin tipi liner although often during this period muslins did not actually function as liners but as muslin hangings displayed to tell personal exploits or some were made for trade. This liner does have the marks left by the small weight pebbles usually assicaited with hanging inside a tipi usage. It is a very large sheet composed of two long pieces joined with a seam along the center. The bottom panel is undecorated. The top section is drawn/painted and colored with ledger like drawings of horses, men in various encounters and battles. The drawings are correct, right to left. It might be individual battles from a larger fight so it might be from the big battles in which Rain in the Face is known to have participated or it could be smaller battle engagements such as stealing horses, counting coup on Native and non-Native enemies. Accession notes include the information that the artist Edwin W. Deming was given the liner by Hunkpapa Lakota warrior Rain-in-the-Face during Deming's visit to Standing Rock in 1889 and Deming may have seen him painting all or part of it. Extensive notes are in curatorial files.

Hide tipi bag with beaded front design of crosses, centered in two turquoise bands edged with yellow. The sides have inset beadwork with tin cones inserted with red fabric tassels.

Cheyenne or Sioux tipi or possible bag because of the stripe quill pattern and Arapaho, Gros Ventre for the edges of the beadwork. It is a very nice example even if the flap isn't decorated. There is some yellow ochre rubbed into the hide. Venetian beads and sinew sewn.Tipi or possible bag beaded on one side with metal jingles, dyed horsehair decorations, dyed feathers, and porcupine quill decorations. Really nice example with intact quillwork.