Man's Shirt Teton Sioux (Lakota) South Dakota ca. 1870 Antelope hide, porcupine quills, pony beads, trade cloth, human and horse hair fringes, sinew thread 43" l. x 56 1/2" wide across the arms T64 Acquired in 1880 by Major John Cook, government agent at the Rosebud Indian reservation, Dakota Territory; Greg Thorne, Los Angeles; Richard A. Pohrt Collection, Flint, Michigan; Private Collection, New Jersey; Sotheby's 1992 (prior to this auction red stroud and hair tassels were restored) This shirt conforms to the poncho style worn in the Central Plains and is made from the hide of two antelopes. The four quarters and neck part of each hide were cut off and sewn on sideways, so as to form the open sleeves; the leg skins serve as appendages on sleeves and the bottom of the shirt. (c.f. Markoe 1986, p.81; Krickeberg 1954, pl.11; Batkin 1995, p.25: Lessard 1990, pp.27-29) The triangular bibs are covered with red trade cloth. Five lanes of three-quill diamond plaited quillwork sewn onto strips of leather run along the open sleeves and across the shoulders to the neck opening. Blue pony beads in lazy stitch outline both the neck opening and the edges of the bib. Smaller blue beads trim the quillwork strips. Tassels of human and horse hair wrapped with yellow quills have been restored along these strips. Such "scalp locks" may be war trophies or they denote relatives of the shirt owner. A picture in the National Archives taken in 1867, shows Tall Mandan, a Teton Lakota, wearing a very similar shirt (illus. XX), and other examples are known from that period. Shirts of this type used to be the exclusive regalia of high-ranking and respected members of the tribe and members of certain warrior societies. Sotheby's 1992, lot 130; Vincent 1995a, p.37
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