19th Century Northern Plains Pictorial Painted Robe

Northern Plains hair drop with red beading with accents on hide, long quilled drops ending in tin cones with red feather fluffs, long black horsehair drop now doubled up on beading. Period: 19th century Origin: Great Plains - Northern Plains, Native American Size: 6" x 35" overall Family Owned & Operated Cisco’s Gallery deals in the rare, exceptional, and one-of-a-kind pieces that define the history of America and the Old West. Our pieces range from American Indian to Cowboy Western and include original items of everyday life, commerce, art, and warfare that tamed America’s frontier. Our 14,000 square foot gallery opened in 1996 in beautiful Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. Personal Service Cisco’s operates on old fashioned values – honesty and integrity, and all of our items are backed by our money back guarantee. We appreciate the opportunity to earn your business. Whether you desire assistance with a jewelry purchase, choosing a gift, identification, or even selling – we hope to be your trusted source. Native American, garments, Blackfeet, headdress, collectibles, antiques, Native American beadwork...

Northern Plains beaded possible bag. Sinew sewn and beaded on softly tanned hide using colors of red white heart, pea green, greasy yellow, royal blue and...

Northern Plains war club with stylized stone buffalo head. Raw hide wrapped adorned with brass tacks. Much patina from use, blood, grease and sweat. Mu...

Gunstock club with carved and painted feather carvings at top, lines with red paint, 4" blade, original trade point. A real weapon of tiger maple. Except...

Antique Sioux (Native American/Plains Indian) Parfleche in a box form constructed of rawhide and intricately painted in an abstract design with hourglass and geometric motifs with natural pigments and red trade cloth. At the time this was created, the Sioux Indians were nomadic and are associated with vast areas of the Great Plains of the United States including present-day North and South Dakota, Minnesota, Nebraska and Montana. Authenticity is guaranteed. Box is in very good condition - please contact us for a detailed condition report. Parfleches are rawhide containers which were fundamental to the Plains way of life. Functioning essentially as protective travelling suitcases, they enabled the nomadic tribes to effectively pursue buffalo herds and migrate between seasonal camps. So critical were they to a nomadic existence that over 40 tribes are known to have historically produced parfleches. Collectively, these tribes inhabited an area which encompassed the entirety of the Plains, as well as the parts of the Southwest, the Transmontane and Western Plateau regions. Parfleches were, out of necessity, robust and versatile objects. They were designed to carry and protect within them anything from medicinal bundles to seasonal clothing or food. In fact, it was because of the containers’ robusticity and variety that parfleches earned their name in the Anglo world. Derived from parer (to parry or turn aside) and fleche (arrow), the word parfleche was coined by 17th century French Canadian voyageurs and used to describe indigenous objects made from rawhide. Despite their common utilitarian function, parfleches served as one of the major mediums through which Plains Indian tribes could develop their long-standing tradition of painting. In fact, it is in large part due to the parfleche that tribal style emerged. Even though parfleche painting developed simultaneously with beading and weaving, painting as an artistic tradition held particular importance in tribal culture. Believed to have evolved from tattooing, it had always been used as a conduit through which tribal and individual identity could be expressed. As such, many tribeswomen were deeply committed, some even religiously, to decorating their parfleche either with incised or painted motifs that were significant to them and/or the tribe. For some tribes, such as the Cheyenne, the decorative processes which surrounded parfleche production were sacred. For others, it seems that their parfleche designs shared an interesting artistic dialogue with their beadwork, indicating a more casual exchange of design motifs. This particular relationship can be seen in Crow parfleche...

Siberian Eskimo people were introduced to tobacco in the 17th century, acquiring it from European traders in exchange for furs. Pipes based on European models, such as this example, ...

Antique Sioux (Plains Indian) beaded hide dress, circa 1880. This one-of-a-kind, handmade dress is crafted from Native tanned deer hide adorned with Venetian glass trade beads embel...

This fantastic rarity is in all original painted surface with the original handmade drum stick attached. The top of the drum has a painted eagle and the base has a coat of worn origi...