Treasures from Our West: Lakota breastplate

Originally featured in Points West magazine in Spring 2011

Of Lakota origin, this breastplate from approximately 1890 is made of bone hair pipes with brass beads and leather fringe. A cowrie shell and a maroon silk ribbon hang from the fringe on one side.

“Hair pipes,” the cylindrical beads often used in breastplates, necklaces, and hair ornaments, were a popular trade item on the Plains. The beads were originally made by southwestern tribes from conch shells, but only became widely available on the Plains when a New Jersey entrepreneur mass-produced them for the lucrative Indian trade, replicating them in bone on a lathe.

Find out more about hair pipes from our Plains Indian Museum.

Breastplate. Adolf Spohr Collection. Gift of Larry Sheerin. NA.203.236

Post 116