Buffalo robe
A buffalo robe is a cured buffalo pelt, with the hair left on. They are used as blankets, saddles, or as trade items by Plains Indians, the Native Americans from the vast grasslands of the Interior Plains.
Some have been painted with pictographs or winter counts that depict important events such as epidemics, famines, and battles.
From the 1840s to the 1870s, the great demand for buffalo robes in the commercial centers of Montréal, New York, Saint Paul, and Saint Louis was a major factor that led to the near extinction of the species.[citation needed] The robes were used as blankets and padding in carriages and sleighs and were made into buffalo coats.
Only pelts taken in winter between November and March, when the furs are in their prime, are suitable for buffalo robes. The summer hides have their hair removed, are tanned, and are used for dresses, pouches, moccasins, and other useful items. Historically, they were used for tipis.
Gallery
Chief Big Elk painted from life by George Catlin 1832 at Fort Leavenworth.
Karl Bodmer's portrait of an Arikara warrior wearing a beaded buffalo robe, early 1840s.
Six Blackfeet Chiefs - Paul Kane 1859
Hubert Vos- Sioux Chief In Buffalo Robes
Knife River Villages buffalo robe featuring the "Feathered Sun" motif, photo by Chris Light
1880 Commercially-made bison coat
See also
External links
References
- 1 2 3 William Waterston (1863). A Cyclopaedia of Commerce, Mercantile Law, Finance, Commercial Geography, and Navigation. H.G. Bohn. pp. 142–144.
- ↑ "Pictograph Robes of the Plains First Nations". Archived from the original on 2013-04-12. Retrieved 2014-02-11.
- 1 2 John Welsted (1 January 1996). The Geography of Manitoba: Its Land and Its People. Univ. of Manitoba Press. p. 89. ISBN 978-0-88755-375-2.
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