TREASURE:
Sioux (probably Crow) Painted Buffalo Robe
Ante 1830
Northern Plains, northern Missouri River area
bison hide, pigment
56-34-1

The most frequently visited gallery in the Reading Public Museum is certainly the North American Indian Gallery. This collection is a favorite of elementary school teachers who take the opportunity to develop the ethnography (study of cultures) and by showing the real objects (not just pictures) of the earliest inhabitants of our region.

The North American Indian Gallery serves to reinforce two teaching objectives. First, it identifies five regions of North American Indians with different customs, habitats, etc. These include: Eastern Woodland, Plains, Southwest, Northwest Coast, and Inuit. Second, the gallery displays the objects that these peoples used in their daily lives: the tools, ceremonial apparel, weapons, and, in the case of the canoe, the primary source of transportation for at least one of the groups.

Another learning experience in the gallery is the information given in terms of the first settlers of our immediate area. Classified as Eastern Woodland, part of the Delaware nation, and, still more definitively, members of the Lenape tribe, familiar local names derived from these early settlers include Wyomissing, Cacoosing, Oley, Ontelawnee, Tulpehocken, Moselem, Sanatoga and Maxatawny. The language from which these familiar names come is classified as belonging to the Algonquin language family.

The remarkable Buffalo Robe in the Museum’s collection is a rare North American Indian object. The robe was made from the hide of a Buffalo, or more precisely, an American Bison. This animal once filled the plains of western America until they were killed indiscriminately by the white man as he built railroads and settled the West. It is now protected. The bison could grow to be 7 feet high at the humped shoulder, 10 feet long, and weigh over 2,000 pounds. It was an important part of daily and ceremonial Indian life as it provided food, clothing, weapons, and shelter (especially teepee wraps).

The rarity of this robe is in its paintings. The scene appears to be of the preparation for a battle showing a war party as the braves are mounting their horses. Note the man on a green horse with his hair standing up in front, generally indicating a Crow Indian. The color pigments were made from minerals, bark, flowers, and clay, and the painting was accomplished using fingers as brushes.