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	Catlin drew Pasheepaho, a civil chief of the Sac and Fox, wearing a "crow belt" on the occasion of a treaty signing at Prairie du Chien. Engraving from Catlin's Letters and Notes on the Manners, Customs and Condition of the North American Indians , 1841.	Raven bustle or "Crow belt" Plains / Prairie (Sioux?) Raven body, rawhide, wood, dyed and undyed horse hair, dyed and undyed porcupine quills, dyed bird quills, ermine, sinew, unidentified plant fiber. L: 78 cm W: 15 cm PM #99-12-10/53050 Formerly identified as one of two "arm bands" associated with a raven bustle or "crow belt" collected by Lewis and Clark and deposited in the Peale Museum, further scrutiny suggests that all three objects are belts. One of the other two is comprised of four raven bodies; the third, like this and most other known examples in museum collections, is made from a single raven. These are almost certainly the earliest collected examples of crow belts, which are ancestral to the later feather dance bustles worn by Plains men, including contemporary forms. Crows and ravens were associated with war, and were worn by members of warrior societies throughout the plains and prairie regions. Raven bustles were observed or collected among the Sac and Fox, the Oto, the Lakota, and other tribes prior to 1850, but few survive in museum collections. While Lewis and Clark did not record the origin of these belts, Clark did observe and describe their use among the Lakota:. "In this nation as in many other Indian tribes the chief appoints one or two Indians whose office it is to keep the peace-a sort of police officer-his office is generally for some days at least till the chief appoints another. Their authority is supreme. They supress all noise or riot-strike a chief of 2d order if necessary-persons sacred while in office-punish anyone by striking him-no opposn. to his authority. They generally accompany the chief & if ordered by him to do any duty however dangerous it is a point of honor for the soldier to die rather than desist or refuse to obey. They are known generally by having their bodies blackened but their distinguishing mark are several 2 or 3 stuffed raven skins so fixed on the small of the back in such a way that the tails stick horizontally off from the body fixed to the girdle on his forehead a raven skin split in two tied round his head with the beak sticking out from his forehead" (Jackson, 1978:517-518). William Clark sent "a Sioux dress for the head and hips when on duty, as a soldier or police man" to Jefferson in October, 1807. Jefferson sent it to Peale, who described the objects in his museum ledger as a "Dress of Crow or raven Skins, worn by the Police Officers of the Saux, nation." A contemporary newspaper advertisement suggests that these belts may have originally been accompanied by a pair of leggings embellished with scalp locks and stripes indicating war exploits. Chiefs sometimes presented such military regalia to their most honored guests, such as other chiefs, U.S. military officers, important traders, and Indian agents. Such gifts were generally given in the context of a gift exchange commemorating the establishment or renewal of a formal relationship. Gifting honored both the giver and the recipient of an object, and chiefs often kept tallies recording the valuable presents they made.   Original paper label from the Peale Museum

	<previous -index- next> h o m e i n t r o o b j e c t s m a p r e s o u r c e s c r e d i t s The Ethnography of Lewis and Clark: Native American Objects and the American Quest for Commerce and Science Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University Copyright ©President and Fellows of Harvard College