Museum Explorer
Warfare in
the Americas
Buffalo robe
From: Canada or the USA (Blackfoot)
Date: before AD 1868
Plains Indian men like the Blackfoot wore buffalo hides like this one as robes. They painted their warlike deeds onto them. The owner of this robe is shown dressed in a yellow shirt with a war-bonnet on his head. Can you find him eight times on the painting? He is capturing a woman, firing arrows from behind a wounded horse, and holding four scalps from defeated enemies.
Men gained honour from brave deeds in war, including striking or killing enemies, being wounded, capturing horses and taking scalps.
