Hide Shirt
c. 1890
- Medium
- hide, pigment, glass beads, human hair
- Classification
- Textile
- Dimensions
- Overall: 97.8 x 150 cm (38 1/2 x 59 1/16 in.)
- Culture
- America, Native North American, Central Plains, Lakota Sioux, 19th century
- Museum
- Cleveland Museum of Art, Textiles
- Credit line
- Bequest of David S. McMillan
- Rights
- Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Teens profiles and older: its museum says too little about what it shows to place it for younger viewers. How works are placed
View at the Cleveland Museum of Art
About this work
Traditionally, only Lakota (Sioux) head chiefs had the right to wear painted shirts, an honor they earned through sacrifice and bravery but lost by failing in their responsibilities. By the time this example was created, European Americans had confined the Lakota to reservations, and painted shirts had become the privilege of battle veterans rather than of active warriors. Family members probably donated the locks of hair, each representing a war exploit.
