A Large Indian Mantle, made of a Buffaloe's skin and ornamented with Porcupine quills

Object Status:

Unlocated

Primary Source Reference:

Claypoole's American Daily Advertiser (Philadelphia) 18 June 1796

Notes:

Gen. Anthony Wayne (1745-1796) likely acquired the quilled robe he sent to Peale during his service in the campaign against Native Americans that culminated in his victory at the Battle of Fallen Timbers in 1794 and the Treaty of Greenville in 1795. 

The quilled robe at the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University, was acquired in 1899 from the Boston Museum, where much of the Peale Museum went about 1850 (Peabody Object number 53120), pictured here. It is probably from the Upper Mississippi (Dakota) or Upper Missouri River and may have been made to be used in buffalo calling ceremonies. It is unlikely to be the robe that Wayne sent to Peale from the Northwest Territory, although it is remotely possible that it was conveyed to that region by a Dakota person or by trade.

See also the entry “A Large Mantle, made of the Buffalow skin, worn by the Scioux, or Soue, Darcota [Dakota] Nation" for the bison robe the Peale Museum received from Lewis and Clark.