A buffalo robe is a cured buffalo hide, with the hair left on. They were used as blankets, saddles or as trade items by the Native Americans who inhabited the vast grasslands of the

Interior Plains The Interior Plains is a vast physiographic region that spreads across the Laurentian craton of central North America, extending along the east flank of the Rocky Mountains from the Gulf Coast region to the Arctic Beaufort Sea. In Canada, it e ...

. Some were painted with pictographs or

Winter count Winter counts (Lakota: ''waníyetu wówapi'' or ''waníyetu iyáwapi'') are pictorial calendars or histories in which tribal records and events were recorded by Native Americans in North America. The Blackfeet, Mandan, Kiowa, Lakota, and other Pla ...

s that depict important events such as epidemics, famines and battles. From the 1840s to the 1870s the great demand for buffalo robes in the commercial centres of Montreal, New York, St. Paul and St. Louis was a major factor that led to the near extinction of the species. The robes were used as blankets and padding in carriages and sleighs and were made into

Buffalo coat A buffalo coat is a heavy winter garment made from the bison, which also commonly known as the "buffalo" (though not closely related to African or Asian buffaloes). In North America they descended from the simpler, sleeveless buffalo robes worn ...

s. Only hides taken in winter between November and March when the furs are in their prime were suitable for buffalo robes. The summer hides were used to make coverings for tipis and

moccasins A moccasin is a shoe, made of deerskin or other soft leather, consisting of a sole (made with leather that has not been "worked") and sides made of one piece of leather, stitched together at the top, and sometimes with a vamp (additional panel o ...

and had little value to traders.

Gallery

File:Big Elk - George Catlin - 1832.jpg, Chief Big Elk painted from life by

George Catlin George Catlin (July 26, 1796 – December 23, 1872) was an American adventurer, lawyer, painter, author, and traveler, who specialized in portraits of Native Americans in the Old West. Traveling to the American West five times during the 18 ...

1832 at Fort Leavenworth. File:An Arrikara warrior 0027v.jpg,

Karl Bodmer Johann Carl Bodmer (11 February 1809 – 30 October 1893) was a Swiss-French printmaker, etcher, lithographer, zinc engraver, draughtsman, painter, illustrator and hunter. Known as Karl Bodmer in literature and paintings, as a Swiss and French ...

's portrait of an

Arikara Arikara (), also known as Sahnish,
''Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nation.'' (Retrieved Sep 29, 2011)

warrior wearing a beaded buffalo robe, early 1840s. File:Six Blackfeet Chiefs - Paul Kane.jpg, Six Blackfeet Chiefs -

Paul Kane Paul Kane (September 3, 1810 – February 20, 1871) was an Irish-born Canadian painter, famous for his paintings of First Nations peoples in the Canadian West and other Native Americans in the Columbia District. A largely self-educated artis ...

1859 File:Hubert Vos- Sioux Chief In Buffalo Robes.jpg,

Hubert Vos Hubert Vos (February 15, 1855 – January 8, 1935) was a Dutch painter who was born Josephus Hubertus Vos in Maastricht. He studied at the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts in Brussels and with Fernand Cormon in Paris. He exhibited widely in Paris ...

- Sioux Chief In Buffalo Robes Image:003 Knife River Village Buffalo Robe.jpg, Knife River Villages buffalo robe featuring the "Feathered Sun" motif, photo by Chris Light File:NEPE Coat--Buffalo.jpg, 1880 Commercially-made bison coat File:Advertisement for F. Oriel Furrier, Rome New York - ladies' furs, children's furs, buffalo robes.jpg, File:Sherburne BostonDirectory1849.png,

External links

Lakota winter countsBuffalo Robe, 1850-1875

References

{{clothing-stub Bison Hides (skin) Indigenous peoples of the Great Plains Native American clothing First Nations culture

Gallery

See also

External links

References