FEATURE
110
FIG. 9 (above left):
Wi-jún-jon, Pigeon’s Egg
Head The Light Going
To and Returning From
Washington. Lithograph
after a painting by George
Catlin, 1837–39.
From George Catlin, North American
Indian Portfolio (Reese Issue I:4),
1855.
Ink and watercolor on card. 330.8
x 44.8 cm.
Photo courtesy of Sotheby’s.
The curved shape of the long, broad
scabbard, together with the hilt
design and stirrup-like handguard
of the sword, suggests this was a
Dragoon or similar cavalry saber.
The sword does not appear in
the original Catlin painting but is
included in later prints, including
this lithograph.
President Andrew Jackson had made a show of
the greatness and generosity of the United States
by giving his guest gifts that included a “Peace
and Friendship” medal and, equally important
to a warrior, the “badge of honor” and symbol
of friendship that other Indian chiefs before
him had received as offi cial presents: a shining
broad saber complete with scabbard and hangers,
and a red sash belt.4 It should be noted that
the sword does not appear in Catlin’s original
painting but only in later prints (fi g. 9).
The long blades of swords also appear in Indian
pictographic representations of battles and
ceremonial events. On the Plains, such pictographic
representations included painted buffalo
(bison) robes (fi gs. 10 and 11), on personal
war shirts made of elk- or buckskin, and on tipis
(or tipi liners—that is, the decorated lining that
embellished the lower section of a tipi interior,
adding privacy and protection from drafts).
With the disappearance of the buffalo and the
end of the Indian wars in the second half of the
nineteenth century, new generations of Indian
artists expressed themselves on paper in the new
form known as ledger art (Greene 2004). The
sword continued to be incorporated in the visual
discourse of Plains Indian warriors turned ledger
artists (fi g. 12).
American Indians were not simple recipients
of this new Euro-American weapon; they
often transformed or personalized swords and
sabers—as they did with firearms, especially
trade guns, carbines, and rifles—with American
Indian decorations including leather
strips, ribbons, beaded pendants, long trailers,
and hanging feathers (figs. 14 and 16).
Scabbards also were transformed through this
process of “Indianization” (fig. 13). Sword
owners added colorful pendants of leather
and cloth to the original scabbard or made
entirely new sheaths of fringed buckskin or
rawhide (fig. 15), also embellished with beadwork
and painted designs. Swords were sometimes
stored in specially made hide cases, often
decorated with symbolic motifs (fig. 17).
The widespread incorporation of swords
and sabers into the formal attire of tribal
chiefs and head warriors was also documented
in numerous photographs. From the
mid-1800s onward, photography played an
important role in the history of Indian-White
relations, and American Indians generally
recognized the non-threatening nature of
photography. For the most part they reacted
positively to the camera, especially since
their posing for a traveling “shadow catcher”