Blanket Strips

[Dietmar]

I would like to share Koos van Oostrom’s analysis of blanket strips, which I found quite interesting. If there are knowledgeable members on Indian material culture among us, please feel free to discuss:




These are Hopi prisoners at Alcatraz, 1895 - here is some information on the circumstances:

open.uapress.arizona.edu/read/409cb51d-bcd6-4a95-91b4-99eae9274fc7/section/7cdddf5b-4c5c-4a7c-a2dc-cda456991303
www.nps.gov/articles/hopi-prisoners-on-the-rock.htm
www.altaonline.com/dispatches/a7179/the-hopis-of-alcatraz/

The man with the blanket strip is the “leader of the hostiles”, Lomahongyoma, of the Spider clan. He’s wrapped in a stroud blanket, held together with an officer’s sash. The separate blanket strip, much too large for his small frame, goes almost twice around his waist. The hat has an officer’s badge pinned to the front. Clearly an outfit put together for the photo shoot.

The blanket strip survived, and is now in the San Diego Museum of Man (or “San Diego Museum of Us”, as political correctness now wills it).





Notwithstanding the three disks (a Ponca thing), I don’t think this is a Ponca strip.
The four rectangular segments are beaded in horizontal lanes (the elongated diamonds in contour fashion), and the disks in concentric overlay - a combination of techniques that are only encountered in some Yanktonai examples (Mike Cowdrey in earlier discussions).

In an oil sketch by Bierstadt “Indians near Fort Laramie”, 1859, one of the Lakota men is wearing a blanket with an almost identical strip.
collections.mfa.org/objects/33165

Note also the outsize blanket strip of the man next to him.




A Mathew Chase Gallery blanket strip, beaded in the same combination of techniques, might also be Yanktonai.



A quite similar strip is in the Field Museum.



The disk of Oglala chief Rocky Bear’s blanket strip (1870 delegation photo detail) also has a motif of four petal shapes.




Based on the combination of beadwork techniques, I would say that the San Diego blanket strip most likely is of Yanktonai origin (the three disks format dictated by its large size). But, of course, I might be wrong…

Koos van Oostrom

[Dietmar]

Here´s another analysis by Koos van Oostrom:


Back in the early days of PIS-2 [Plains Indian Seminar II, a Yahoo discussion group on Indian Material culture], a picture was posted of a tintype showing a Prairie man, most likely Ponca, wearing a blanket with a wide strip - the disk, featured prominently in the photo, is very large.
The image was saved in my archive without any information, but I suspect the tintype was offered in an auction sale, possibly eBay.




As my enlarged enhancement shows, the quality of the image is poor, and doesn’t yield much detail. I’ve always hoped to find a better copy of the tintype - so far without any luck.




A while ago, I stumbled upon a blanket strip in the Reading Public Museum collection that I instantly recognized as the one in the tintype. They have it as “Kiowa”, but the strip bears all the hallmarks of Ponca work.




It’s a bit difficult to compare the images because, in the tintype, the light reflecting off of the beadwork obscures almost half of the disk - and the collapsed midsection prevents a good view of its central design.
According to the museum’s information, the diameter of the disk is 31,1cm!




Saved in my file together with the image of the tintype, and probably posted as an attachment in the same PIS-2 discussion, is a picture of another blanket strip with a very large disk that also has feather imagery in its design - the caption of the image is “HEYE”.




I searched the NMAI collections and found it: They have it as “Blackfoot”, but I think it’s also of Ponca make (Although with only one disk, instead of the usual three).
With a diameter of 33cm, the disk is even larger than that of the RPM strip.






Some of the design imagery of a Ponca blanket strip in the Alan Hirschfield Collection resembles that of the NMAI strip.




That’s it for today’

Koos van Oostrom


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[kingsleybray]

A note for Dietmar and Koos: take a look at the two tintypes made by Lt Thomas Wilhelm at Red Cloud Agency. In each case depicting a small group of Oglala men, children, plus officers from Camp Robinson. One focuses on chief Red Dog, the other on chief Red Leaf. In both tintypes is a younger Oglala man, holding an eagle wing fan and wearing a broad brimmed hat and a blanket with a broad beaded central strip. The medallion or rosette looks very similar to the one on Rocky Bear's blanket strip in the 1870 delegation shot posted above. Another petal shaped design?

Hope this helps.

[Dietmar]

Thanks Kingsley,

actually, now that I see it, I tend to believe it could indeed be Rocky Bear in the Wilhelm pictures:

[kingsleybray]

yes I thought the resemblance was striking btw Rocky Bear and the man in the Red Leaf group

[grahamew]

Does look like him in that top shot.

[Dietmar]

Got this message from Koos:


Not so fast, Dietmar!

The blanket strip of the unidentified man at the stockade is not the same as Rocky Bear’s in the 1870 photos.
The two dark quarters in the design of the disks are reversed (horizontally in one, vertically in the other) - and the disks' borders appear to have a different design.
The design of the rectangular segments of the strips also differ slightly.





Having said that, their close similarity warrants the thought that the strips might have been produced by the same woman - so, it can’t be ruled out that the man at the stockade is Rocky Bear.
All high octane speculation, though.

Koos van Oostrom