Title: The American Museum journal
Identifier: americanmuseumjo04amer (find matches)
Year: c1900-(1918) (c190s)
Authors: American Museum of Natural History
Subjects: Natural history
Publisher: New York : American Museum of Natural History
Contributing Library: American Museum of Natural History Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library

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and the back. It appears on most of the beaded dresses, and is placed there partly for decora- tion, and partly because it is the prevailing style. The old women know that in former times the de- sign of the turtle was placed on the dress as a kind of prayer to the mythical turtle, who was believed to be the guardian spirit watching over the lives of women. Now they say that the design is placed on the dress simply because "that is the way." Thus we have a de- sign which was formerly sacred and symbolic, but is now chiefly deco- rative. The painted decorations upon the buffalo-robes of men and women are of this type also. In general, the decorative art of the Sioux presents three types, or perhaps stages, in the development of primitive art, — a purely decorative type, a purely sym- bolic type and an intermediate conven- ;tional type. The men employ the same simple and combined geometrical designs as are used by the women, but for the pre- sentation of military ideas. Thus, the moc- casin (Case 24. g) shown here represents a battle in which the wearer participated. The triangular designs around the sole (the tent pattern) represent hills; the small rec- tangles (the box pattern), enemies standing between the hills ; the small marks upon each hill design, bullets striking. The in- step of the moccasin is colored red to repre- sent blood, and the triangular design within the red area represents an arrow. The idea to be conveyed is, that the owner engaged in a battle in w^hich the enemy took refuge in the hills, and that blood was shed.
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