Animal Hide Robes and Blankets of the Plains

Plains Tribes’ Decoration of Wearable and Useable Art

Sep 2, 2009

People living a traditional life on the Plains took pride in their material culture. One article clothing considered a multifunctional piece is the animal hide robes.

Before European contact and white settlement in America, most clothing was made from animal skins. Depending on the season, the skin would have hair or be hairless. Depending on the region, the clothes would be different animals, such as deer, buffalo, moose, bear, elk, or bighorn sheep, just to name a few. Instead of conventional coats, the people living on the plains covered themselves in blankets or robes made from the skins of the large hunted animals. These hides were tanned, and then used for bedding and or to cover up while being outside in the cold weather. What is most eye catching is the decorations that the robes tend to be decorated with. From hunting scenes to geometric shapes, these robes are amazing pieces of functional art that has begun to disappear with modern connivances.

The Basics of Animal Hide Robes

The Plains tribes are known for their highly decorated and stylized robes made from the skins of large animals. Many times the robes would be made of buffalo, since this animal was the sustainer of life for the people on the plains, but other animals were also used. Each tribe would have their own type of decoration and symbolism associated with the robes, and in turn each family would then in turn have their own version of their tribes design. The design implements would be quills from the porcupine as well as feather quills or grass, and/or paint made from rock and plant pigment. As the years progressed, connection to white settlers brought trade, and the introduction of small beads for fine detail work that was faster then the laborious art of quill working. This was around the mid-1800’s. During the white contact years, painting was still done, due to its ease versus quill work or beadwork, but all ways of decoration were still used. If a thick blanket was used instead of animal skin, it was usually beaded.

Women’s Robes versus Men’s Robes

There are several examples of animal hide robes in the way that the robes are decorated and stylized. For many tribes, robes were gender separated by the art produced on them. One design style example done by the Lakota and surrounding tribes is called the box and border design. This design was kept strictly for the robes of women. The painting done in the box and boarder design robes where painted by women for women, and reflected symbolically the geometrical proportions and internal organs of the buffalo. If painted, each stroke was made by a bone brush, sharpened to give crisp details. These robes were used for many things, from everyday use, to ceremonial importance. There were other styles the women used in other tribes, such as hourglass and boarder, horizontal stripes, the feathered circle, and the bilaterally symmetrical or circle in the center. There were times that men were owners of the feathered circle and the bilaterally symmetrical designs painted by women.

Men wore animal hide robes that were decorated very differently from women’s robes. Some tribes had robe designs that would be horizontal painted or quill worked lines. Other tribes would take the idea of the horizontal zones, but instead would paint action scenes. Men would be permitted to paint their war deeds on the robes, their captured bounties, and things they gave away at giveaways. Sometimes the men’s robes were viewed like the biographies of the wearer, and some robes did have the touch of women upon them. For example, some robes would have what is called a strip located in the center of the field, attached horizontally from nose to tail. Many times this was added if the hide was cut in half to tan. On either side, the action scenes would be painted by men. The strip would be painted, quill worked, or later made from beads, but the stripes were exclusively made by women’s artisan societies. In many communities, there were artisan societies run by women. Women were hand chosen by society members, and when they achieved their status as members, the women would be paid for their work on the art they produced, by trade within the tribe or by other tribes.

Many times, buffalo hides where used to depict important events that happened during the course of a year or years (such as a ‘winter count‘), or they were events from a person’s life. Winter counts were not worn, but were kept in a safe place by the keeper of the winter counts, and only pulled out when it was needed to remember the histories associated with the years. No matter if the animal hide was worn for warmth, ceremonial use, or a way to nostalgically remember the past and to teach the future generation, animal hide robes, blankets, and winter counts were and are an important part of Plains Tribes culture.

The copyright of the article Animal Hide Robes and Blankets of the Plains in Native American/First Nations History is owned by Maureen Zieber. Permission to republish Animal Hide Robes and Blankets of the Plains in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.