| Click for Larger View of Joe & Angie’s War Shirt The original Lakota Scalp Shirt which is the inspiration for Joe & Angie’s reproduction (shown above) is on display at The Minneapolis Institute of the Arts. The Exhibition, Beauty, Honor, and Tradition: The Legacy of Plains Indian Shirts will be shown February 22, 2004 through May 16, 2004 in the Target Gallery. View the Original Lakota Scalp Shirt  The exhibition is a collaborative project between The Minneapolis Institute of Arts and the National Museum of the American Indian, Smithsonian Institution. ~ American Indian History ~ The historical owner of the original scalp shirt was most likely the head chief for the Itazipcho (Sans Arc) Lakota, indicated by the blue and yellow colors of the paints. Among the Lakota, the Wicasa Yatapika, “shirt wearers,” or head chiefs, were the only men who had the right to wear painted scalp shirts. Demonstrations of great sacrifice and bravery were required to earn this high rank in traditional Lakota society. Such chiefs were embued with supernatural powers used to protect and serve their people. In battle, shirt wearers were the first to charge and the last to depart. If a comrade’s horse was shot, leaving the warrior on foot, the shirt wearer was obliged to rescue him. If a shirt wearer did not fulfill his duties, he was stripped of the right to wear the sacred garments, and he and his family were humiliated. The human hair scalp-locks attached to this shirt have great symbolism. Hair was considered an extension of a person's soul. For an Indian warrior to acquire hair from another was to add his power and strength to his own. Extra courage and strength was always, needed for the daily struggles which a young Indian warrior faced. The two primary colors, blue and yellow, symbolize the sky and rock, basic elements of the Lakota cosmos. The three-dotted decorative pattern could represent a celestial constellation, or the track of an animal important to the shirt’s owner. The Indian nations that inhabited the Northern Plains included the Blackfeet, Plains Cree, Plains Ojibwa, Gros Ventre, and Sarcee. Each tribe lived differently, but they all had great respect for the land and for life. They were proud people who lived every day with honor and heroism.1,2 |
 Inquiries and
Toll Free Order Line
1-800-621-6668 ________ ________ - Adapted from: “Beauty, Honor, and Tradition: The Legacy of Plains Indian Shirts,” by Joseph D. Horse Capture and George P. Horse Capture;
- “Black Arrow’s Indian War Shirt Collection,” by Joe & Angie
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