This site requires Javascript to be turned on. Please enable Javascript and reload the page.

Performing Archive

Piegan

This page has paths:

Contents of this path:

Contents of this path:

Pinokiminush is one of the few Piegan of advanced years and retentive memory. He was born about 1835 on Jusdith river in what is now northern Montana, and was found to be a valuable informant on many topics. The buffalo-skin cap is a part of his war costume, and was made and worn at the command of a spirit in a vision. The first fasting of Tearing Lodge for the sake of experiencing a vision is narrated by him in Volume VI, pages 79-81.
Little Plume with his son Yellow Kidney occupies the position of honor, the space at the rear opposite the entrance. The picture is full of suggestion of the various Indian activities. In a prominent place lie the ever-present pipe and its accessories on the tobacco cutting-board. From the lodge-poles hang the buffalo-skin shield, the long medicine-bundle, an eagle-wing fan, and deerskin articles for accoutering the horse. The upper end of the rope is attached to the intersection of the lodge-poles, and in stormy weather the lower end is made fast to a stake near the centre of the floor space.
Unistai-poka (White Buffalo-calf) died at Washington in 1903. He was then almost eighty years of age, and had been the chief of his tribe for about a generation. In 1855, being then known as Feather, he signed the treaty negotiated by Governor Stevens. As a warrior, White Calf was famous among the tribes, but with the passing of inter tribal warfare he devoted himself to working in peaceful ways for the good of his people. He was remarkable in the breadth of his judgement, and in the readiness with which he recognized, and adapted himself to, the changes which his people were obliged to face when the buffalo vanished. Kindly, benevolent, and gentle of nature, White Calf yet possessed a sturdy determination and independence that bullying and threats could not move. Yet if reasons were advanced which appealed to his judgement, he was quick to acknowledge error and to modify his views - George Bird Grinnell..
At least two of the Piegan Warrior societies (the Braves and the All Brave Dogs) included in their membership two men known as Grizzly-bear Braves. It was their duty, at the time of the society dances, to provide their comrades with meat, which they appropriated wherever they could find it. Their expression and demeanor did justice to their name, and in their official capacity they were generally feared by the people. See Volume VI, pages 20-21.
Medicine-pipes, of which the Piegan have many, are simply long pipe-stems variously decorated with beads, paint, feathers, and fur. Each one is believed to have been obtained long ago in some supernatural manner, as recounted in a myth. The medicine-pipe is ordinarily concealed in a bundle of wrappings, which are removed only when the sacred object is to be employed in healing sickness, or when it is to be transferred from one custodian to another in exchange for property. Such exchanges, occurring at intervals of a few years in the history of each pipe, are attended by much ceremony
The Sarsi are an Athapascan tribe which prior to the nineteenth century came out of the far north, crossed the Saskatchewan, and becoming affiliated with the Algonquian confederacy of the Bloods, Blackfeet, and Piegan, became typical plainsmen, following the buffalo, engaging in horse-stealing raids, and in general adopting the religious practices of their allies. Old Sarsi, as the subject of this plate is colloquially known, was ninety-eight years of age when the photograph was made in 1925. In spite of his years, he was still agile and keen.