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Plains Indian War Shirt

Currency:USD Category:Firearms & Military Start Price:2,500.00 USD Estimated At:5,000.00 - 9,000.00 USD
Plains Indian War Shirt
This early Indian warrior war shirt dates back to the 19th century. The disks have early 19th century blue, yellow, and red trade cloth under the design, front and back. The fabric remains color fast but is becoming fragile. This shirt is made using the 18th and 19th century pattern requiring two deer skins using the upper for the arms and the lower part for the body of the shirt. This early shirt has no beads, no hair attached, and no quillwork. It is not sewn except for the top of shoulders with an opening for the head, arms sewn to the body, and a narrow sewing below the arms attaching the front and back. The sewn portion was actually the upper part of the front legs. It has continuous cut fringe from the edge of the arms and along the bottom. This being an older shirt the arms were not sewn allowing a much freer advantage in war when the sleeves could be thrown back. Stitched to the front and back of the body is a "U" shaped piece of fringed hide. The colorful disk was spot stitched to the shirt. In the old days in some less prosperous tribes, the shirt was not decorated except for fringing. A feature, as in this shirt, of the Nez Perce, Blackfeet and some other plateau tribes was the piercing with innumerable small holes that cover the entire shirt but never more than one third of an inch in diameter. This shirt has polychrome mineral painted designs in blue, yellow, and red.