Exhibit: https://fourviewshist181.jenniferandrella.com/exhibits/show/story-robe
Blackfoot people, in bands split into smaller parties made up of family groups, were historically nomadic, hunting across the Great Plains from Alberta to Canada (Dempsey, 2007). What is known as the Blackfoot Confederacy is primarily made up of three bands of people—the Piikani, the Kainah, and the Siksika (“Blackfoot,” 2024). The first half of the nineteenth century was viewed as the height of the Blackfoot Confederacy’s power, when they worked to prevent European and American fur traders from poaching beavers on their land and fought with other tribes in the area (“Blackfoot,” 2024) According to L. James Dempsey (2007), “There can be no question that Blackfoot society glorified war.” (p. 403) Some misconceptions exist, however, that Blackfoot warfare was fully concerned with gaining glory from killing others, when in reality, Blackfoot people had a variety of goals when engaging in warfare with other tribes. Some sources describe merely touching an enemy to be of the highest honor for a Blackfoot warrior (one example of this is “counting coup”), while others claim taking an enemy’s gun, shield, or scalp to be the highest honor (Dempsey, 2007). It is true, though, that warfare was a prominent tradition in Blackfoot society, and the importance of becoming a warrior was taught to children at a young age (Dempsey, 2007).
One way stories about an individual’s war exploits were circulated throughout Blackfoot society—with the goal of both showcasing one’s honor and, likely, encouraging children to grow up to become protectors of their people and lands—was through the creation of story robes (Dempsey, 2007; Lycett & Keyser, 2018). Displaying a warrior’s journey was a major purpose of painting these robes, but they were also used to depict important events in the life of an individual or the history of a tribe in general (“Iitsiiniiksi’naatsin,” n.d.). As stated by Stephen J. Lycett and James D. Keyser (2018), “for a warrior wearing a hide painted with such actions, his biography is carried on his back” (p. 773). Art on Blackfoot robes was usually autobiographical, illustrated by the warrior who would then wear it, and was more concerned with communicating a narrative than beauty or realism (Dempsey, 2007; Lycett & Keyser, 2018; Peck & Wetzel, 2022). The images on the robes were stylized and fairly simplistic, with symbols often resembling others throughout the timeline of Blackfoot art, although the design was still very much up to the ability and imagination of the individual artist (Dempsey, 2007).
The robe I researched for this project was found on Mootookakio’ssin, the Blackfoot Digital Library, a project with a goal “to connect Blackfoot people living in their home territory in Southern Alberta, Canada, with their historical objects that are housed in museums in Britain. An additional goal is that the project will build bridges between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people and perspectives.” (Clark et al., 2022, p. 38) This robe was dated to at least before 1856, when it was obtained from Blackfoot territory by a man named Henry Christy (“Iitsiiniiksi’naatsin,” n.d.). Christy died in 1865, and the story robe along with the rest of his collection of objects were given to the British Museum in London, England (“Iitsiiniiksi’naatsin,” n.d.). Besides the robe’s journey after leaving Blackfoot territory, there is no information known on the name, band, or biography of the person who actually created, wore, and experienced the exploits depicted on the robe (“Iitsiiniiksi’naatsin,” n.d.). Therefore, all interpretations of the story being depicted on this robe can not yet be confirmed or denied. For my Four Views project, I looked closely at different parts of the robe and tried to interpret the story.
This Blackfoot robe is made out of bison hide with the illustrations done in paint, likely from natural materials such as plants, clay, fungi, and stones (“Iitsiiniiksi’naatsin,” n.d.; Dempsey, 2007). Bison, called iinii in the Blackfoot language, were incredibly important animals to Blackfoot culture, and after the decline of bison, hides of other animals such as cattle and elk had to be substituted for the production of story robes and other cultural and/or practical objects (“Iitsiiniiksi’naatsin,” n.d.; Dempsey, 2007). The robe I studied shows multiple different war exploits of either a single individual or several individuals in a group—of the many figures colored in yellow, several wear a headdress and a distinct pendant of an animal claw or tooth, as if those design elements were meant to set aside one person (perhaps the artist) as an individual. A few other yellow figures do not have those distinguishing features, leading me to believe they were other people taking part in one of the artist’s exploits. I believe there may be around eight different events being depicted on this robe, due to the presence of eight figures wearing the distinguishing clothing.
In many of the events, the figure appears to have killed and taken the scalps of different enemies, which I interpreted by using images of scalp pictography from other nineteenth century Blackfoot robe art (Dempsey, 2007). Another involves the main figure touching what I believe to be a woman in a still position, perhaps a victim or prisoner, as suggested by Dempsey (2007). One event shows what may be the capture of three enemy horses, each one a different color—yellow, green, and black-blue—which may have referenced their actual coat colors, with yellow sometimes being used to represent a buckskin horse (Dempsey, 2007). Additionally, one event in the upper right corner of the robe seems to depict the main figure gaining honor by touching an enemy with a coup stick (Dempsey, 2007; Lycett & Keyser, 2018). Other imagery throughout this robe that I found to be prevalent in other examples of Blackfoot robe art includes dotted footprints next to the human figures, showing movement from one part of the story to the next; rectangular human bodies and circular hooves on horses; and representations of bows, arrows, and captured rifles (Dempsey, 2007; Lycett & Keyser, 2018).
During the course of this project, I thought about just how unfortunate it was that there was nothing else known about this Blackfoot robe or the person who made it, and how even sources like the Dempsey (2007) book seem to document really only a very small number of the countless robes that must have been produced by Blackfoot people throughout time. It is also incredibly sad that this robe is currently sitting in storage at the British Museum when it should be reunited with members of the Blackfoot Confederacy who might be able to glean greater understanding of it (“Iitsiiniiksi’naatsin,” n.d.). Academically, story robes should not only be considered works of art, but also valuable historical documents. Native people around the world have been underserved by scholars who operate under a single written understanding of history, a colonial one, when in reality a narrative can be told in a number of different ways. There also may be some misconceptions that oral history and storytelling—while certainly valuable and crucial to many cultures—was the only Indigenous method of recording history and, as a result, much individual history is lost to current knowledge, when this is simply untrue (Lycett & Keyser, 2018). Scholars, in general, need to abandon a Eurocentric perspective and adapt to different modes of communication. With extra attention given to objects such as story robes, maybe the process of returning them to their rightful owners can also be expedited.
Bibliography
Blackfoot Digital Library. (n.d.) “Iitsiiniiksi’naatsin.” Mootokakio’ssin. Retrieved May 31, 2024, from https://mootookakiossin.ca/explore/objects/storyrobe_BM_1869/main
Britannica, T. Editors of Encyclopaedia (2024, May 29). “Blackfoot.” Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved May 31, 2024, from https://www.britannica.com/topic/Blackfoot-people
Clark, C., Heavy Head, D., Mills, J., & Shouting, M. (2022). Engaging audiences with digital Blackfoot objects online and in the art gallery. In Diffracting Digital Images (1st ed., pp. 36-49). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003042129-3
Dempsey, L. J. (2007). Blackfoot War Art: Pictographs of the Reservation Period, 1880-2000. University of Oklahoma Press.
Lycett, S. J., & Keyser, J. D. (2018). Beyond Oral History: A Nineteenth Century Blackfoot Warriors’ Biographic Robe in Comparative and Chronological Context. International Journal of Historical Archaeology, 22(4), 771–799. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10761-017-0448-8
Peck, T., & Wetzel, D. (2022). A Death Lodge Medicine Wheel Depicted in Siksikaitsitapi (Blackfoot) Robe Art. Academia Letters. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL4534