Painted Tipi Curtain: Victory Record of the Elkhorn Scraper Warrior Society
c. 1870
Medium
Bison hide, pigment, stitching
Dimensions
223.6 × 240.1 cm (88 × 94 1/2 in.)
Department
Arts of the Americas
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
182617
Art Historical Context
Welcome to the Arts of the Americas gallery, where we encounter the *Painted Tipi Curtain Victory Record of the Elorn Scraper Warrior Society created by Cheyenne artists around 1870. This striking bison hide panel, measuring nearly 8 by 7 feet, served as a monumental curtain for a tipi, a sacred dwelling central to Plains Indian life. Adorned with vivid pigments in red, blue, black, and yellow, it the triumphs of the Elkhorn Sc Warrior Society—a prestigious Cheyenne group known for their valor in battle—through symbolic figures of warriors, horses, and enemies. In the turbulent late 19th cent...