A buffalo robe is a cured buffalo hide, with the hair left on.
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They were used as blankets, saddles or as trade items by the Native Americans who inhabited the vast grasslands of the Interior Plains.[1] Some were painted with pictographs or Winter counts that depict important events such as epidemics, famines and battles.[2]
From the 1840s to the 1870s the great demand for buffalo robes in the commercial centers of Montreal, New York, St. Paul and St. Louis was a major factor that led to the near extinction of the species. The robes were used as blankets and padding in carriages and sleighs and were made into Buffalo coats.[3]
Only hides taken in winter between November and March when the furs are in their prime were suitable for buffalo robes.[1] The summer hides were used to make coverings for tipis and moccasins and had little value to traders.[3][1]
Gallery
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Chief Big Elk painted from life by George Catlin 1832 at Fort Leavenworth.
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Karl Bodmer's portrait of an Arikara warrior wearing a beaded buffalo robe, early 1840s.
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Six Blackfeet Chiefs - Paul Kane 1859
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Hubert Vos- Sioux Chief In Buffalo Robes
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Knife River Villages buffalo robe featuring the "Feathered Sun" motif, photo by Chris Light
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1880 Commercially-made bison coat
See also
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editReferences
edit- ^ a b c 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.
- ^ a b 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.