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 The beads were originally made by southwestern tribes from conch shells, but only became widely available on the Plains when a New Jersey entrepreneur mass-produced them for the lucrative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
