Object: Saddle

E/1947/1/8
Saddle
Cheyenne (Believed to have belonged to Henry Roman Nose)
North America: United States
ca. 1870s
Materials: Wood, leather, sheep skin, metal

Paleontologists have discovered fossils of early horses in North America as far back as the Pleistocene epoch, 1.8 million to 10,000 years ago. However, sometime around 8,000-10,000 years ago horses became extinct in the Americas. Horses were only reintroduced to the American continents in the 16th century by Spanish explorers. The Spanish brought a number of types of horses with them over the years and many of these animals escaped into the wild. These horses are the source of the wild mustang herds that would eventually become so synonymous with the American West. Within roughly a century of being reintroduced to North America, horses were adopted by many Native American tribal groups.

While Native Americans borrowed some horse riding techniques and technology from the Spanish they were also quick to develop their own distinct types of tack. Two of the major types of Native American saddles were the pad saddle, and the wood (or woman’s) saddle. The pad saddle may have been adapted from the Spanish pack saddle and consisted of two leather cushions stuffed with grass or animal hair that were sewn together and  secured to the horse by a leather girth. Some pad saddles had a piece of rawhide between the two pads that would act as a seat for the rider and covered the girth attachments. Stirrups could also be hung from this rawhide strip. This type of saddle was preferred by men for hunting and warfare.  The wood (or woman’s) saddle was made of a wooden frame covered in rawhide and often decorated with beading and fringe. The frame was made of two roughly rectangular pieces of flat wood called sideboards that were connected by two forks of wood that formed the pommel and cantle. The top of each fork was bent outward, away from the rider. The entire frame would then be covered in rawhide, padding was added under the sideboards, and a girth would secure the saddle to the horse. Some wood saddles also had a strip of rawhide attached between the pommel and cantle for the seat, others placed a buffalo robe or blanket over the saddle frame for a more padded seat. This type of saddle was typically used by women. It could also be used to teach young children to ride and was helpful for attaching packs and materials to the horse for transport. One variation of the wood saddle is the so called “prairie chicken snare saddle.” This type may have been a modification of the wood saddle and appears to have been developed later. In this type of saddle the sideboards and girth were the same as that of the wood saddle. However, the pommel and cantle were formed out of elk or deer antlers and some had D-shaped flaps attached to facilitate attaching packs. This type of saddle was a multipurpose type that was used by older men, children and some women as a riding and pack saddle.

This saddle at the Sam Noble Museum is a variation of the wood saddle type and is reported to have belonged to Henry Roman Nose. Roman Nose (aka Woquini meaning “Hook Nose”) was born in 1856 and became a formidable Cheyenne warrior. In 1875 he was arrested along with other warring Cheyennes at the agency at Darlington. After his arrest he was sent to Ft. Marion in St. Augustine, Florida where he learned English. He was later moved to Virginia where he converted to Christianity and was baptized as Henry Caruthers Roman Nose. He learned tinsmith at a boarding school in Pennsylvania before returning to his homeland in 1881, eventually settling in Blaine County, OK. [Kathryn S. (Barr) McCloud]

Object: Hairbrush

E/1947/1/76
Hairbrush
Cheyenne
North America: Plains
ca. 1890
Materials: Porcupine tail, wood, glass beads

Haircare has always been an important part of the daily human routine. Besides just maintaining a clean and healthy appearance, hairstyles can express individuality or identify an individual as part of a specific group. Changing your hairstyle can even make a difference in how you are perceived by others.  A different hair color could effect how old you look, and a different cut or style could make you seem either rebellious or old-fashioned. Pre-contact Native American tribes were no less conscious of hair care and styling that we are today, and they had nearly as many styling products. Hair was shined with animal fat, and was sometimes colored or decorated with colored clay. Some tribes even had techniques to lengthen their hair in a way similar to modern hair extensions or weaves. Certain hairstyles were more closely associated with one tribal group than others. For instance, men of the Kanien’kehake (Mohawk) tribe were known for shaving portions of their head, men of the Apsáalooke (Crow) tribe tended to prefer a pompadour style, while women of the Hopi tribe twisted their hair around circular bands to create a style that resembled butterfly wings on the side of their heads.

This object is a hairbrush made from the tail of a porcupine. It is made by sewing the bottom portion of the porcupine’s tail, where the quills tend to be smaller, around a wooden stick. The seam where the tail is sewn together is frequently decorated with glass beadwork. This type of hairbrush was common among many plains tribes. Porcupines are a type of plant eating rodent best known for their quills. The North American porcupine (Erethizon dorsatum) is the largest species of porcupine in the world. A porcupine may have as many as 30,000 quills on its body. The quills are a special type of hair with barbed tips on the ends. Quills are solid at the tip and base and hollow for most of the shaft. Porcupines use their quills for self defense but, can not “shoot” them at predators. Instead the quills simply detach easily from the porcupine’s body on contact, typically ending up in the mouth or claws of the attacker.  [Kathryn S. (Barr) McCloud]

Object: Necklace

NAM-09-06-304
Choker (Necklace)

Collected among the Cheyenne, Western Oklahoma, USA
September 1883–September 1885
Materials: Glass Seed Beads, Horse Hair, Leather

Not all objects found in museum collections are in a condition suitable for traditional exhibition. This necklace, or “choker,” fragment is a useful example of a piece that would likely never be included in a public exhibition due to its fragile state; however, here we are able to highlight its importance to SNOMNH’s collections and use it as a vehicle for discussion on a variety of subjects.

This style choker was at one time worn by both women and men from a wide distribution of tribes found in the Midwest, specifically the around the Great Lakes and in Prairie (Eastern Plains) region. The technique used to create this choker is called side-stitch. This is a hand-woven, or more precisely “oblique interlacing” technique of beadwork that creates diagonal rows. This particular choker was constructed using black horse hair—a material that was later replaced by commercially available threads. The use of horse hair in its construction and the subsequent use by the donor’s family as a plaything have contributed to the current condition of this object.

In 1973, a collection of American Indian objects were donated to SNOMNH (formerly the Stovall Museum) by Mrs. John Surr, daughter of Dr. Vernon W. Stiles. Dr. Stiles worked for the Indian Traders, Hemphill and Way, at the Darlington Indian Agency, Indian Territory, between September 1883 and 7 September 1885. During his two-year employment as a salesman, Dr. Stiles had the opportunity to meet and trade with many Cheyenne and Arapahos in the local Native community. It was during this time that the choker came into Dr. Stiles’s possession.

Knowledge of where an object was acquired and who collected it can create inaccurate identification because the person who last owned an object was often not its maker. In fact, trade in objects was, and continues to be, a very common practice between Native peoples. Because this choker was collected among the Cheyenne and donated along with other items identifiable as Cheyenne material, it was labeled “Cheyenne.” As mentioned earlier, this style choker was common to a wide distribution of tribes; however, the Cheyenne were not among this group. It is possible that the choker was acquired in trade from another tribe, or perhaps, someone from another tribe married into a Cheyenne family bringing this piece or the construction technique with them. It is also quite possible that a Cheyenne beadworker learned this beadwork technique and produced it themselves, which would make the “Cheyenne” label accurate. Without any further information on who exactly made the choker it is impossible to say with certainty from which tribe this object originated.

To learn more about this style of choker, see Georg J. Barth (1993:145-158) and David Dean (2002) for details on the side-stitch technique. Also see Gaylord Torrence (1989:16) on the use of side-stitch chokers. For more information on the Cheyenne and Arapaho, see here or for more information about the Darlington Indian Agency see here.

SNOMNH invites your comments on this choker or any of the other topics addressed above. [John P. Lukavic]

Object: Parfleche

NAM-9-6-204
Cheyenne Parfleche

Southern Cheyenne
West Central Oklahoma
Late 19th – early 20th century
Media: Rawhide, Pigments

This parfleche is decorated in typical Southern Cheyenne style. Reds, yellows and greens were the most prominent colors used by makers in painting parfleches. Originally these pigments were made from natural mineral deposits. Small pieces of porous buffalo bone were used to apply the paint. Note that the designs on the parfleche are outlined in thin brownish-black lines. This is another Southern Cheyenne feature. This pigment was made by mixing buffalo blood with burnt grass. Parfleches provided storage, fulfilling the same role that suitcases and plastic containers do today. The nomadic Southern Cheyenne needed durable containers that could stand up to the rigors of moving camp. Rawhide is both a durable and waterproof material. Envelopes, like this one, were the most common form among the Cheyenne. However they also produced flat and cylindrical cases. Parfleches were used to store a wide variety of materials, including clothing and food. [Michael P. Jordan]

Object: Moccasins

E/1953/8/73
Moccasins

Southern Cheyenne
West Central Oklahoma
Early 20th Century
Materials: Cowhide, Rawhide, Sinew, Glass Beads

These moccasins are constructed in the two-piece style. Each moccasin consists of a soft leather upper sewn to a stiff rawhide sole. The beaded design on the vamps of these moccasins is referred to as the tipi door design. It was used on girls and women’s moccasins. This pair exhibits a number of features commonly found on Cheyenne moccasins. For example, the heal seam does not extend to the top of the ankle flaps, creating a v shaped gap where the flaps meet. Cheyenne women were extremely selective about the beads they used. They preferred to use small beads in their beadwork. Even within a single lot there was frequently significant variation in the quality of the beads. Consequently, the beadworkers would often sort through the beads, selecting only those that exhibited uniform color, shape and size and culling inferior quality beads. [Michael P. Jordan]

Object: Beaded Pouch

NAM-9-6-331
Beaded Pouch
Southern Cheyenne
West Central Oklahoma
Late 19th Century
Materials: Hide, Glass Seed Beads

This pouch is made from the toe portion of a Southern Cheyenne moccasin. Note the distinctive shape. The beaded design on this pouch is similar to the decoration on a pair of beaded moccasins in the museum’s collection. Members of the Cheyenne community who viewed the pouch identified the beaded design as the “tipi door,” a design used to decorate the vamp on women’s moccasins. The reverse side of the pouch is not beaded. Materials from worn out objects were occasionally recycled in the production of new items. For example, rawhide moccasin soles were sometimes cut out of old parfleches. Evidence of this practice exists in the painted designs on the soles of some moccasins in museum collections. [Michael P. Jordan]