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Chief's War Shirt50.67.11

This shirt is constructed with very little tailoring. It is left open at the sides and a triangular bib is sewn on at the neck. This bib is decorated with blue pony beads, patterned with rows of triangles. Strips made of porcupine quillwork and maidenhair fern stems have been placed on the arms, shoulders and as epaulets. Long buckskin fringes have been added at the sides of the shirt, the bottom, and the sleeves. The shirt is dyed a yellowish-orange color. On the proper right side, many narrow, brown, horizontal bands that are bisected at one end have been painted. These have been said to stand for horse whips. On the proper left, four hourglass shapes, almost completely filled in with black, have been painted. They have been said to stand for cloth or blankets. The triangular neck flap is beaded somewhat differently from front to back. The front shows two rows of triangles whereas the back includes a third row that contains two triangles. The blue beads visually square off the pointed end of the skin and are similar to the design on Jarvis shirt 50.67.1a.

Culture
Sioux, Yanktonai and Nakota
Material
buckskin, dye, pigment, glass bead, porcupine quill, maidenhair fern stem and sinew
Holding Institution
Brooklyn Museum
View Item Record
Chief's War Shirt50.67.4

This elaborate shirt is decorated with beads and quillwork executed in several techniques. The bib has a heart and two flower sprays in red, green, and blue porcupine quills. The top edge is decorated with blue pony beads in a two-bead edging technique: red garnet beads were applied along the sides with the same technique. An inner broken line border of small red and black seed beads are also sewn on the bib. Two"rays" or "spokes". The inner ring, now grey, is surrounded by a ring of light blue which is then encircled by a red ring. The radiant rays are filled with areas quilled in pale yellow, light blue, and orange. Each entire rosette is encircled at the seam by large blue pony beads. The shoulder seam "coverings" were finely woven on a loom, but are now very deteriorated. A geometric pattern of red and blue "Xs", interspersed with red and blue diamonds are edged with small squares in red, black, and blue. The shoulder strips are checkered, quilled with three lines of colored squares in orange, blue, purple, black, yellow and white and finished along the sides with a zigzag pattern. The seam ornaments and shoulder strips are both edged with a single line of the blue pony beads. Tabs along each side and along the sleeves have pierced decoration. The "cuffs" are ornamented with two lines of blue pony beads. First, a single line and then a double line closer to the opening.The side seams and sleeves have long fringes, but very tiny fringes at the wrist, with every other one wrapped with orange quills. The comparitively simple decoration and unwrapped fringe are possibly due to the fact the shirt produced exclusively for sale and so rated less decoration. See Jarvis report in Arts of Americas' files.

Culture
Red River Metis, Yanktonai, Nakota and Sioux
Material
buckskin, porcupine quill, garnet bead, pony bead, seed bead and thread
Holding Institution
Brooklyn Museum
View Item Record
War Shirt16.1/1624