Piegan Blackfoot Warriors Shirt, Ca. 1880s

Piegan Blackfoot warrior shirt from the Browning Reservation in the area of the Glacier Park, Ca. 1880s. Venetian beads in six different colors with long beaded strips on each arm and rosettes in the middle of shirt on front and back. The beadwork dates to two different periods. The rosettes are estimated to be about 10 years earlier, Ca. 1860s-70s than the strips. Rosettes on Blackfoot shirts date back to the 1820s. Shirt wearer was from one of two senior military societies, either from the "Horn Society" or from the "All Brave Dog Society" warrior societies. Interesting to this particular society shirt is the fact that it most probably never transferred ownership. When a "societal" shirt transferred ownership, it required some form of painting or color pigmentation to be placed on the shirt. This shirt has no such painting. The hide shirt including all of the fringes are a single cut from one antelope hide. Beadwork is thread sewn on canvas webbing and applique stitched. Provenance: Blackfoot Family; Browning Museum; Northern Montana Furniture Maker; Al McClellan - Historic Interiors Thompson Lodge, Sorento B.C.