. Bulletin. Ethnology. 96 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 159 monness in buffalo days. In former times those objects were indices of their owner's wealth and status. Bodmer illustrated a fancy crupper on a Blackfoot man's horse in 1833 (Maximilian, 1906, Atlas, pi. 19). However, the earliest pic- torial representation of the elaborately decorated martingale and crup- per combination I have seen appears in Sohon's 1855 field sketch, "The Bloods Come in Council" (pi. 4). In size and shape the pieces por- trayed by Bodmer and Sohon resemble specimens collected in more recent years.
. Bulletin. Ethnology. 96 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 159 monness in buffalo days. In former times those objects were indices of their owner's wealth and status. Bodmer illustrated a fancy crupper on a Blackfoot man's horse in 1833 (Maximilian, 1906, Atlas, pi. 19). However, the earliest pic- torial representation of the elaborately decorated martingale and crup- per combination I have seen appears in Sohon's 1855 field sketch, "The Bloods Come in Council" (pi. 4). In size and shape the pieces por- trayed by Bodmer and Sohon resemble specimens collected in more recent years. Bradley (1870's) stated that the Blackfoot woman's ornamental crupper had a fringe of horsehair to the lower ends of which little bells were attached. In my informants' youth cut buck- skin fringes were also used. The ornamental crupper had a soft skin or trade flannel base. It was decorated with beadwork or (if of skin) in angular painted designs "something like a parfleche ; In more recent times (since ca. 1875) floral designs, combined with the double-curve have been employed commonly. Martingales were simi- larly ornamented (Wissler, 1915, fig. 15; Ewers, 1945 b, figs. 61-63). Much more common in buffalo days were martingales and cruppers of narrow bands of rawhide, used on the riding horses of both sexes and on pack animals. The martingale was a rawhide band about 3 fingers wide, tied to the prongs of the pommel of the wood saddle by rawhide cords. The crupper was a single or double strip about the same width throughout most of its length, extended by means of a grass-padded loop, strengthened with soft skin binding, under the horse's tail. It was tied to the front or rear horn prongs of the frame saddle with buckskin cord (fig. 16). Some women painted the sur-. Please note that these images are extracted from scanned page images that may have been digitally enhanced for readability - coloration and appearance of these illustrations may not perfectly resem
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