Lakota Sioux Painted Child’s Robe
Circa 1870

Chimayo Trading Staff Report | August 2026

Throughout the Great Plains the painted buffalo robe was perhaps the single most item that evoked a time in which the Native peoples of the Americas roamed the west. The buffalo provided everything the nomadic people’s needed to survive; food, clothing, weapons and a true sense of culture. Nothing was wasted and nothing was used without giving thanks.

This Lakota Sioux girl’s robe from a Wyoming collection is thought to be made from an unborn buffalo calf and uses the “box and border” design elements giving honor to the animal. The Head and tail are still intact and the stake loops are easily identified throughout. Stop by our gallery in Ranchos de Taos to see it in person, or online at chimayotrading.com.

Lakota Sioux Painted Girl’s Robe, ca.1870
44” x 49”

In 2012, under the direction of the Nelson-Atkins Museum in Kansas City, MO, curator Gaylord Torrence presented the most important Native American exhibit of its kind in decades. The show… “Plains Indian Art” opened in Paris, France and traveled on to New York City before its final destination at the Nelson Atkins Museum. Hailed as a masterpiece of early Native American art, the show joined items from European and American museums as well as private collections to display indigenous materials from across two continents. Centerpieces of the show included five beautiful and rare painted buffalo robes.

The buffalo was included in every aspect of daily life and was revered during life cycle events. As a young girl became of age, the buffalo was also included. Often a young girl would be segregated from her family into a separate lodge where during this time elder female relatives instructed her in the responsibilities of adult women: industry, generosity, modesty, care of the family, and proper conduct. She was taught practical skills such as quillwork or beadwork and was reminded of the spiritual power that now resided in her as a potential life-giver.

The formal ceremony that followed was conducted by a holy man (wičháša wakȟáŋ). Instruction in the virtues associated with the buffalo cow… fecundity, nurturance, hospitality, and strength. A symbolic dress exchange in which the girl placed her child’s clothing on a buffalo skull as an offering, and put on an adult-style dress. Arranging her hair in the manner of a grown woman and painting a red line along the part. A community feast and giveaway, so that the blessings of the rite extended to the whole camp. The ceremony affirmed that the girl’s new status was both personal and communal. It connected her to the buffalo, the central source of life for the Lakota, and to the sacred circle of the people.

A painted robe was used to wrap her and give thanks to the animal. The design elements called “box and border” represent the internal organs of the animal. The paints are both natural earth pigments as well as trade paints and are traditional Sioux colors of red, yellow and blue. The design is often found on painted parfleche envelopes that help us to determine the Sioux tribal affiliation.

In short, a Lakota Sioux girl’s robe of a young or unborn buffalo calf hide from that era would have been part of a larger ceremonial complex that celebrated the sacred power of womanhood, linked the individual to the buffalo and the community, and marked one of the most important transitions in a woman’s life. It is unusual to find a robe of this size and condition that still has the head and tail attached. Robes from this time period are most likely only found in museums and private collections.

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