OBJECT history 142 appears, linked to the camp by a straight line. Traces of red suggest blood and are visible on his neck, and what appears to be a severed arm is near his legs. An Intermediary Between Archaic and Modern From a stylistic point of view, this robe displays a mixture of archaic and more modern characteristics. Its archaic aspect is most apparent in the stick-like treatment of the figures. Similar figurative representations are seen on very old robes like the one collected by the Lewis and Clark Expedition (dating from around 1790–1800) in the Peabody Museum at Harvard, those in the Deutsches Ledermuseum, and those in the Musée du Quai Branly (around 1830).2 These depict either riders without legs or the superimposition of a standing man and of a horse, which graphically results in the rider being represented frontally, while his legs are seen in profile. The horses are rendered with massive and rectangular bodies, with narrow, stiff legs ending in hook-shaped hooves. The robe in question here differs from these in the treatment of the riders’ legs and those of the horses, which are fairly realistic with curved backs and well-defined hindquarters. Although the style testifies to more advanced development than the early examples cited above, it is less refined than ones documented from the 1870s–1880s. The relatively rapid evolution of Plains pictographic art was apparently fueled by Western influence, particularly generated by the presence of numerous artists and travelers, who, beginning in the 1820s, spent time among Plains Indian tribes. This style comparison indicates that our robe likely dates to the period between 1840 and 1850. Examination of the graphic treatment of the horses and the figures reveals that at least two people participated in the decoration of our object. This robe is also different from older examples from a thematic point of view. Those show combat scenes in which warriors, either on foot or on horseback, confront one another head to head, with the “friends” moving toward the left and the “enemies” toward the right, thus underscoring the adversarial nature of the encounter. No combat scene is depicted on our example, on which all of the figures are moving from right to left. War is suggested only by the head struck by the axe and the warrior’s body lying next to the American camp. Interpreting such scenes is difficult. This is because these painted pictogram robes were used as mnemonic aids and were intended to be understood by those who had actually lived the events they depicted or those who had already learned of them through oral tradition. Any wear fringed or unfringed hide shirts. Lastly, three wear garments that resemble capes. Several head ornaments can be recognized, including a hair pendant decorated with metal discs, a “sun” coif, and an eagle feather headdress. The weapons depicted are mostly bows and quivers, straight spears decorated with feather banners, symmetrical Missouri-type axes, and cavalry sabers. Whips can also be seen. Two warriors are equipped with firearms, a rifle and a pistol, the latter depicted above a horse’s hindquarters. These weapons are associated with a powder horn worn over the shoulder. Eight warriors carry circular shields decorated with feathers and floating ribbons. Seven of these shields are painted with decorative designs. These motifs, obtained in dreams or visions and thought to offer supernatural protection, were unique to each warrior and made it possible to identify him. The thrice repeated representation of two of the shields (the “bird” shield and the “horned” shield) demonstrate that what is depicted is not just a single scene, but rather several that took place over time. The horses, delineated and filled in with color like the human figures, are drawn in a fairly realistic manner, especially where the lower legs and hooves are concerned. The anterior and posterior limbs are flexed and the tail is generally rendered floating. Some of the horses wear eagle feather ornaments affixed to their tails, foreheads, or manes. Apart from the warriors and their horses, other representations appear on this hide. At the upper left is a human head with long hair surmounting a triangular torso. An axe is seen above the head and traces of red paint are visible in the hair. This undoubtedly indicates that the person whose head this represents was killed with this type of weapon. In a lower portion of the hide, a pipe and its bag of decorated animal hide (possibly otter) are seen in front of one of the riders. According to Plains traditions, the presence of these objects in front of a rider indicates that he was the leader of a military expedition, that is to say, the individual who mounted the initiative and had responsibility for it. The very bottom of this portion of the hide also depicts a bison that has been killed with two arrows. A particularly intriguing representation appears at the bottom left of the hide between two of the warriors. It is a circle on the inside of which is a frieze of triangles, atop which are three flags each with a star on a background of red stripes. The circular design is most often interpreted as the representation of a camp (fig. 4). The flags are clearly representations of the American flag. Immediately to the right of the camp, the figure of a prone man
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