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ART as COSMOLOGY: Cheyenne Women's Rawhide Painting
by Winfield Coleman

THE ABSTRACT ART of Plains Indian women shows tremendous depth and energy, as well as exceptional skill. To insist that it is merely decorative, as has sometimes been asserted, is both factually and ethically wrong. It is religious art that springs directly from the shamanic roots of indigenous Plains philosophy, which accounts for its unwavering conviction, its conservatism, and the remarkable vitality apparent in the variations wrought within its self-restricted and self-regulating vocabulary of form. Native American rawhide painting in general, and Cheyenne women's painting in particular, is not widely understood, but it deserves a place among the world's great artistic traditions based on both its depth in time and its depth in expressive power.

The majority of Cheyenne women's utilitarian objects of rawhide were undecorated. A certain class of rawhide containers, however, were always decorated with painted motifs. These include the vecee'seo, or medicine bags, and the hoemskot'eo, or folded envelopes, commonly referred to as parfleches. Certain vehos'eo, or small bags or envelopes, were likewise decorated, as were the vehan'eo, the larger cylindrical cases used to carry war bonnets (Petter 1915: 83, 214; Coleman field notes).

Painting on rawhide was different in technique from painting on dressed hides, although the same paints were used on both. After the rawhide was prepared, it was initially too moist to receive the paint without risk of bleeding, that is, the paint spreading into contiguous areas. If the rawhide dried too long, however, it did not absorb the paint sufficiently. The painting of rawhide therefore had to be accomplished within a very limited time frame and the designs visualized in advance. Typically, when the hide was ready, the head woman of the painters' society quickly sketched the design with a pointed bone or a wood stylus, either a design she had visualized or using a completed parfleche as a guide. She measured with cut willow sticks, pressing hard enough with the stylus to leave a distinct cut or groove in the moist hide. The woman who was to paint the hide then filled in the colored areas of the design with pigment mixed with buffalo-hoof glue, using the broad edge of a bone applicator. Care was taken to apply the color thinly, allowing light to reflect off the white hide beneath, resulting in a characteristic translucent appearance, still considered important by traditional Cheyenne painters. 

After the colors were applied and partly dry, the designer outlined the forms with a thin brown-black line to differentiate them clearly from the unpainted areas, and added the small brown-black designs characteristic of Cheyenne work. Any bleeding that might have occurred during the application of other colors could be corrected in this step. The final step was to size the painted area with a glaze also made of boiled hooves (cf. Kroeber 1902: 122; Morrow 1975: 37). 

Not all Cheyenne parfleches were incised, however. In some cases the color appears to have been applied freehand, with the brown-black outline applied afterward in a way that both defined the border between painted and unpainted areas and also subtly corrected the designs. This took a sure and experienced hand. 
The techniques used by Cheyenne women differ little from those of surrounding tribes. The primary emphasis of this article will be on the religious context of Cheyenne rawhide art, its canonical structure, and complex symbolism as explained to me by Cheyenne elders. The following outline is my own synthesis drawn from the statements of a number of elders, and does not necessarily reflect the point of view of any single individual. 

THE CHEYENNE WORLD

The structure of Cheyenne society is considered a reflection of the natural order established by Maheo, the Creator. The Cheyenne world is divided vertically into three regions: the Above World, the Middle World, and the Below World. In general terms, the Above World is considered masculine, the Below World feminine, and the Middle World a mixture of the two.

Hes'stahnoh?wihstohdsîh (lit. "the life of the people), the generally visible world, includes and is interpenetrated by Matasoomhe'stanof, the generally invisible world of the Maiyun'eo, or spirits. Some Maiyun'eo, such as Sun, Moon, Stars, Thunder, and Rainbow, are visible on a regular basis, but they are exceptions. Most are accessible only in dreams and visions. Matter is usually feminine; spirit, masculine. This division is not, however, absolute. Most of the known world is a mixture of matter and spirit, masculine and feminine. The totality of this world is supported by the World Tree, around whose axis the cosmos spins, and whose seven branches constitute the seven layers of the universe (Coleman field notes, cf. Schlesier 1987: 20).

The human body is considered to be an analogue of the universe. When a body is painted, the paint is applied in motions emulating the path of the sun. The process emphasizes the four Sacred Directions. For example, a man faces east while his right leg is painted, south while his right arm is painted, west for his left arm, and north for his left leg. The movement that results is a spiral, which is one of the basic movements of the universe. This process is true not only in the painting of men's bodies, but in the painting of war horses, and of animal hides and their products such as lodge covers and rawhide containers. In this concept, the spine corresponds to the trunk of the World Tree, the four limbs to the four directions. The heart, considered the seat of knowledge, corresponds to the center of the cosmos.

The universe (Paaum') is conceived as a sphere (Fig. 4). The world's heart is the Sacred Mountain, No?"avo'së (Suhtai: No"ahwus'), "The Place Where They Are Taught." This important site is located near present-day Sturgis, South Dakota, and is known in English as Bear Butte, a translation of its Lakota name. The bears for which it is named guard the entrance to the Sacred Cave in No?"avo'së, wherein the Cheyenne culture hero, Motse'yuef (Sweet Medicine), received enlightenment in a cone of power-energy in the form of lightning-descending from Nonomah' (Thunder), the emissary of the Creator. Through the catalyst of the ceremony taught to Motse'yuef, this energy was transferred into the womb of Escehe'eman (Suhtai: Is'kiman), or Grandmother Earth, inseminating her and causing her to bring forth abundant new life upon the face of the earth, releasing it from the womb-like caverns of the Below World.

LIFE AND CEREMONY

Every time a Cheyenne pledges a ceremony, sets up a lodge, or paints a shield or parfleche, he or she sets in motion the means whereby this sacred event is re-experienced. Even in preparing raw-hide, a woman begins by using a flesher (eh?xohn'hohyoh), whose shape and use are emblematic of the striking power of lightning, the masculine essence of spirit. With it the flesh, the essence of matter, is removed from the envelope of hide, itself emblematic of the spiritual essence that contains all matter (cf. Schlesier 1987: 63). At the moment of impact on the hide, the flesher figuratively "grounds" itself, as lightning is said to "ground" when it strikes the earth (Moore 1984: 308). This simple movement becomes a symbolic act of procreation.

Likewise the scraper (ho?nih?'hihyo) used for hides bore inherent powerful references. Made of elk antler, and curved like a mussel shell or the crescent of a new moon, it was symbolic of the life-giving powers of the earth (Moore 1974: 152-3). The elk is an animal of sexual potency, and this aspect is particularly embodied in its antlers. The motion used with this instrument, pulling it toward the body, was the same as that used by antelope and buffalo shamans when pulling game toward a pound (a trap for game formed by encircled hunters) by the magic of their antelope arrows or pipes (Bent Papers 9/12/13; 5/11/17; Coleman field notes). 

The choice of material was of great importance. The hides of antelope, when shamanically prepared, were preferred for men's shirts, because the alertness and great speed of the animal could be called into the garment. Because of the buffalo's enormous power and endurance, as well as its role as food, buffalo hides were used for the containers in which food or clothing or medicine were kept. In using materials in this manner, the Cheyenne and other Plains Indians enveloped themselves and their belongings in the numinous power of those who had allowed themselves to be sacrificed for the good of the people, protecting them from ill fortune.

The prepared hide was not merely an inanimate object. The natural body of man and beast is animated by omotome, the Divine Breath, and hematasoomao, the Spirit that is divided into four parts. After the death of man or animal, the omotome becomes localized in those body parts that resist decay the longest: teeth, bones, claws, feathers, and hair. Until these too have decayed, and the omotome has rejoined the hematasoomao in the caves beneath the earth, or the spirit land in the sky, the animal or person cannot be reborn. By keeping these parts intact, shamans can call back the hematasoomao to assist them (Schlesier 1987: 9). Scalps were ceremonially prepared for this reason and used to fringe shirts so that the courage and strength of slain enemies could be called upon in need. Likewise, skulls and feathers are still important in ceremonies. The principal means of aligning Spirit and Breath within such objects is through the imposition of symbols upon their surfaces, usually through painting, beadwork, or quillwork (cf. Coleman 1996). 

THE CHEYENNE WOMEN'S PAINTING SOCIETY

Cheyenne parfleches are widely recognized for their technical excellence and unsurpassed elegance, as well as their rarity (Torrence 1994: 105). The conservatism of Cheyenne rawhide art, which maintained both a high level of quality and a continuity of basic designs over long periods of time, was ensured by the close supervision of the women's rawhide painting society. This society does not have a name, but its members were refered to as moneneheo, the Selected Ones, indicative of their high status. (Coleman field notes; compare Petter 1915: 97) The society had both a religious nature and social and economic importance to the tribe and to women in particular. This powerful society explicitly defined aspects of wealth and status, and reinforced the importance of gift exchange and uterine affiliations. As with any shamanic guild, members had to apply for admittance, and were only accepted if they met strict criteria, which included, but were not limited to, high artistic and moral standards (Morrow 1975: 76-78). Almost invariably, the women were past menopause and had already arrived at the status of mothers, grandmothers, and elders, as well as being craftswomen (Coleman field notes).

Most extant Cheyenne parfleches are of Southern Cheyenne manufacture, largely due to Ranald MacKenzie's savage attack on Dull Knife's village in 1877, in which most of Northern Cheyenne material culture went up in flames. Because of the circumstances by which these objects have been preserved, there are substantial gaps in the artistic record.

METHODS OF COMPOSITION

The Cheyenne had available to them a palette of indigenous pigments perhaps wider than that of any other tribe. The sources of several pigments remain a guarded secret to this day, while others are more generally known. Alexander Henry the younger claimed that the Piegan had ten colors (Henry & Thompson 1897: 731). The Lakota appear to have had but five or six (Hassrick 1984: 225; Morrow 1975: 142-5). The Cheyenne had thirteen or even fourteen in all, including all ten pigments used by the Blackfeet. The majority of these are earth colors, and three are technically broken colors composed of two colors mixed together. Some sacred paints were made by including all the paints together with micaceous silicate or lead plumbate (cf. Grinnell 1923, vol. II: 119). All continue to be used in the Sun Dance, or Earth Renewal Lodge.

Women restricted themselves to a much more limited palette, however: reds, yellows, chrome green, a grey-green, cobalt blue-green, a delicate cerulean blue, and brown-black. The distinctive character of Cheyenne women's painting derives from its powerful draftsmanship: the tension and visual clarity deriving from the artists' use of a thin and precise brown-black outline, which always emphasizes the border between positive and negative space, and frequently between adjacent colors as well. The placement of small black units added a dramatic change of scale, and shifting focal points greatly added to the rhythmical layering of the whole.

The visual complexity of Cheyenne women's painting is achieved within very limited formal constraints consisting of a series of primary units of design; that is, centrally placed design motifs from which stem other compositional motifs. These are used in conjunction with secondary and tertiary design elements to form basic structural patterns that can be viewed in terms of both positive and negative space. Other motifs are then overlaid to create the final painting. Reading the parfleche objects vertically, as they were painted, nine primay units can be identified (A, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J). A tenth primary unit (B) remains a theoretical possibility only, as it is found among the Arapaho. There are no known Cheyenne examples, although there once may have been. Of the nine, F may be a borrowing from the Arapaho, who claim it as one of their oldest designs. It occurs in the extant corpus of Cheyenne painting three times, while G, H, and I appear once each. The secondary units often mirror the primary units, although in some cases they do not. There are only six variants of these (a, c, d, e, f, g). Secondary units b, h, i, and j reflect existing primary unit patterns in other traditions but do not appear in known Cheyenne examples. All ten of them appear in the work of adjacent tribes, notably the Arapaho and Lakota. In the negative spaces between the primary and secondary units, tertiary units are sometimes placed, usually variants of [a] or [b]. Tertiary unit [e] appears only once. It is entirely probable that this vocabulary of form was at one time more comprehensive. At present, however, these are the only design units on identifiably Cheyenne parfleche articles.

MEANING IN THE DESIGN UNITS

The symbolic content of some of the design units has been defined. Others are still uncertain or theoretical. Space constraints do not allow a full discussion of each unit, but a representative survey follows.
The diamond shape of Primary Unit A, undoubtedly the most common, represents ha'kot, the grasshopper. Diamonds in Cheyenne art consistently represent grasshoppers in everything from the Grasshopper Lodge, used to house the Sacred Hat of the Suhtaio, to several varieties of Grasshopper Shields, to the fetish cases used by young girls to carry umbilical cords.

Grasshoppers, whose grass-eating propensities and vast numbers linked them to the buffalo, were used as divination tools to locate buffalo herds. Buffalo were especially linked to Escehe'eman. The colors that grasshoppers assume-red, yellow, green, and white-are associated both with rainbows and with stars, and the diamond shape itself can represent stars as well. The word for rainbow, nono'no, also means trap. The fifth color grasshoppers assume, black, is associated with the night sky and death. For this reason, rabbits (used to bait traps), rainbows, and diamond-shaped grasshoppers frequently appear on Cheyenne shields, luring enemies into traps. 

The diamond is typically divided into two equilateral triangles by a line, sometimes referred to as the "backbone." Each equilateral triangle in this motif represents a mountain, vos'ê or wus, especially the Sacred Mountain, which is echoed in the triangular humps of buffalo, the great gift and primary symbol of Escehe'eman. From this perspective, this simple figure embodies the buffalo's body, and so the earth itself. For example, the diamond shape that is cut out of the back of a sacrificed dog is referred to as the "earth" (Schwartz 1988: 43). Thus the simple diamond is freighted with symbolic referents, all of which relate, one to the other, in a syntagma of meaning whose whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

The other nine primary units vary widely in meaning. The majority of them share a symmetrical tripartite construction, however, which, among other things, references the cosmological structure of the Upper, Middle, and Lower Worlds. Indeed, the parfleche itself is a microcosm of the Cheyenne universe: its folds divide it into three parts, its four corners mimic the four directions, and, like the universe, it wraps and enfolds beneficial materials such as nurturing food and protective clothing.

The secondary units also bear symbolic content. Secondary Unit a represents a mountain, vos'e or wus. Secondary Units c and d are referred to as cîxto'hinêmînîts, an old word (perhaps Suhtai) meaning, approximately, "mountains that sit close together." Similarly, Secondary Unit d is called mo?e'he ma?es'to, or elk's pillow, that is, the place where the elk lies down to rest-the mountains. The term ma?es'to refers to the quilled or beaded pillows made by the Sewing Society, and also to ceremonial drums of folded rawhide, covered with elk skin for Elk Society rituals or with badger skin for the Arrow Worship. All associations of secondary units converge on earth references.
Tertiary Units [a], [b], and [c] are typically painted red. Apparently they are considered variants of a shared design, called mao'osta, "red blanket [clothing] woman." Sometimes these units are divided in two vertically, with half the design red, the other half blue or green; in this case the design is called nishiwo'wum, "two blanket design". Sometimes they are simply referred to as hota?'wum, "colored design." Ultimately, these designs represent lightning bolts. This is obvious when we compare a painting ascribed to the Sans Arc Lakota artist Black Hawk, in which a Thunder Being wields a lightning bolt in this shape, one end red, the other blue. From another perspective, Red Blanket Woman is another name for Grandmother Earth, covered with a blanket of sacrificial blood. The killing or sacrifice of enemies with "lightning" (embodied in Cheyenne weapons) ensures the continued fertility of the earth. The importance of this symbol is indicated by its frequent use in painted robes to represent dead enemies, and as hair ornaments-the so-called "hair bows"-of early Plains Indians (cf. Thomas & Ronnefeldt 1976; and Ewers 1957).

OTHER MOTIFS

The various units of design used to complete the interior of the composition are not as easily defined as the Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary Units. The most common motif is the square unit within the triangular "mountain" unit. This is called he?ne?'too or henî'tio, meaning "Sacred Door" [by implication leading into a sacred cave in the mountain]. The identical meaning is found among the Arapaho (cf. Kroeber 1902: 110, 111, 117). 

A design resembling a capital "I" with elongated serifs is referred to as me yo' or me?'a, meaning trail. Like most painted designs, it also appears in embroidery, where it carries the same significance (cf. Kroeber 1902: 111). These forms may represent the so-called "dead men" constructed of wood, used to funnel buffalo into drive lanes (Coleman 1996), and they also represent backbones. These meanings are related: the "dead men" direct buffalo along a path that leads to their death, while the backbone is explicitly compared to the path of the sun, which is the prototype and model of the path of life. 

Small dots, when in a line, represent animal tracks, usually wolf tracks; but when arranged around a he?ne?'too, they represent sacred persons inside a cave. The boundaries between human and animal are never clearly defined in the shamanic world-view.

Finally, the red or yellow painted stripes that typically appear in the corners of frame-lines, and sometimes in between, are referred to as ho?'tameyo, "colored trails." They are really variants of the meyo' design, with two crossbars at each end, instead of one. Embroidered examples commonly appear on men's shirt sleeves and leggings, as well as on different types of dressed-skin containers. 

NEGATIVE SPACE

The entire series of painted, positive images, then, are associated with the earth-which is to say, the material world, in its sacred aspect. The negative spaces-the unpainted areas in between the positive images-are also charged with meaning. Specifically, they represent spiritual powers: usually those associated with the air, but sometimes those associated with deep water; that is, they represent the Above World and the Below World, sources of the most potent spiritual power.

The most common negative space, a rather simple hourglass figure, is illustrative. The negative pattern resulting from the combination of Primay Unit A and Secondary Unit a is the outline used to depict the body of a Thunderbird. Thunder (embodied in the Thunderbird), like Whirlwind, is considered mostly friendly to the Cheyenne (Moore 1975: 159; Coleman field notes). Maximilian recorded that the design when painted on a man's robe represented slain warriors (Thomas and Ronnefeldt 1976: 136). In Cheyenne, it is called makê'sohvghîm, meaning, approximately, "enemy design." One of the radicals of this term is also contained within the word for the Monarch butterfly (Anosia plexippus), he vohv'ghîm(a) (literally "Quick-swinging Being"), referring to its dancing flight. This bright reddish butterfly is considered to be the lice of the Nonoma'eo, Thunder Beings (Thunderbirds), and is also referred to as nanomi'hîstîm (Grinnell 1923, vol. II: 95-6; Coleman field notes). Its mystical character, and the fact that it drinks blood, set it apart from ordinary butterflies, which are called deitsit'da. So the design implies both an enemy's corpse and the mysterious being that drinks its blood. It is evidently a negative-space version of the Red Blanket Woman design as well (cf. fig. 26[a]). Its very simplicity, as well as its popularity, would lead us to assume this to be one of the oldest designs. This is confirmed by a flat bag collected by Duke Paul of Würtemburg between 1829 and 1831 and now in the British Museum, where it is accessioned as "Arikara." 

This shape also represents a star, which is perhaps more evident in fig. 28b, where triangular Tertiary Units make the negative space appear more like a star. Both configurations appear in bead and quill embroidery, another area of women's decorative art. The name for this embroidered decoration, typically included within a circle, is hotoxc, star. Stars, associated with women and buffalo, are likewise associated with slain enemies and fertility. In short, they are associated with transitions: from night to day, from barrenness to fertility, from life to death and death to life. These associations are brought together in the three great ceremonies of the Cheyenne: the Sun Dance, the Massaum, and the Buffalo Rite. Each is heralded by the helical rising of a star-red, blue, and white respectively. These ceremonies ensure dominion over enemies, the goodwill of the Maiyuneo that control the souls of animals, and the continued fertility of women and animals.

Analyzing Cheyenne rawhide painting in both positive and negative terms by identifying primary, secondary, and tertiary units reveals that only seventeen fundamental compositions can be identified in the extant corpus of material. One of these can be dismissed out of hand as an Arapaho borrowing. Even supposing that several designs have been lost altogether, the number of variations remains remarkably small, yet they display a wealth of inventiveness in the reconfigurations of color, scale, and individual elements. 

CONTAINER SHAPE

While we have emphasized the importance of painted symbolism, it should be observed that it is entirely probable that the shape of the containers, and even their position within the lodge, also had symbolic significance. There were, of course, practical considerations-these were, after all, containers-but the constraints were not so great that other forms could not have been used. The rawhide itself could be cut into any shape, and indeed, there are Cheyenne examples of containers shaped as circles, half-circles, and lunettes. Examples from other tribes contain an even greater variety.

Though there are no surviving photographs of Cheyenne lodge interiors from the pre-Reservation period, there are both written and oral traditions about the disposition of rawhide objects. Some of the hoemskot'eo, or rectangular bags, were arranged on edge about the interior walls of the lodge. The vecee'seo, or medicine bags, were always hung directly opposite the door, over the owner's bed, while the bonnet cases were hung from the tripod of his backrest, directly over his head.

We know that the disposition of the shield outside the lodge had specific significance, and there is every reason to assume the same for rawhide containers. Meat containers were stored beneath the beds of old women, not only because the women were watchful guardians, but because they were close to Grandmother Earth herself, from whose sacred caves the animal spirits were released to provide food for the people. By arranging the rectangular bags about the interior of the lodge, the central design elements-the long rectangle of negative space called the "backbone" that bisects the primary unit-represent the sun's path. By painting the envelopes in pairs, each with the same design repeated on either flap, the artist reminds the viewer that each power has an opposing power, and that both contain two aspects. 

The medicine bag was hung where the morning sun would strike it first; but it is also in a position that symbolizes the center of the lodge, the sun at noon, the source of power. So, unlike the rectangular cases, it always has a cross painted on the back, symbolizing the center of the world, where the opposing powers of the universe meet to produce a higher unity. The cylinder of the bonnet case on the tripod headrest symbolically extends the owner's spine, itself an analogue of the world tree. The lids atop such cases are painted with a cruciform Morning Star; appropriately so, as the bonnet that is drawn out of the case represents the sun in splendor. Lunette containers represent, quite logically, the moon.

FOUR SEXES

Of fundamental importance to Cheyenne philosophy is the division of the world into four sexes: male, female, He'emaneo (androgynes with more of the male) and Hetanemeo (androgynes with more of the female) (Petter 1915: 1116; Coleman field notes). The He'emaneo are usually referred to in the literature as berdaches (Roscoe 1994: 331). The Hetanemeo are rarely mentioned at all. While it is often acknowledged that berdaches excelled in the arts, the type of art they produced is never defined. 

The placement of the He'emaneo within the male/female continuum is critical to an understanding of how men's and women's art differed, and in what ways they overlapped. It can also shed light on otherwise anomalous works of art (fig. 25), about which there has been considerable speculation, but little in the way of structural analysis.
It is here proposed that He'eman paintings are those paintings in which cosmological symbols, usually the province of men, are articulated in a medium, and with a skill, usually restricted to women, that is, rawhide painting. Such work could only be produced by He'emaneo, who, as androgynous shamans, were able to transcend the worlds and the crafts of male and female, drawing them together in a unity stronger than either. This is consistent with the great esteem with which these individuals were held in traditional Cheyenne culture (Coleman field notes). 

It is important to emphasize that these painted items were not necessarily used by the He'emaneo who produced them. In fact, this is consistent with the social behavior both of women, who frequently gave away their painted containers, and of men, who frequently commissioned powerful shamans to paint their shields. A fine example of He'eman painting is the medicine bag used by the great shaman Lame Bull, a band leader, animal caller, and healer, but not a He'eman.

ORIGINS

There is a considerable overlap between Kiowa and Cheyenne design, to the extent that one might almost conclude that the Kiowa were of the same Algonquian origin as the Cheyenne, which they are not. The historical explanation for this can be found in the absorption of a hybrid Cheyenne-Kiowa band into the Kiowa nation, probably between 1821 and 1838-that is, before the permanent truce between the two nations was established in 1840 (Moore 1987: 222). It may go back even earlier, as the Cheyenne, Arapaho, Kiowa, and Kiowa Apache were mingling together in the Black Hills in the late 18th century.

Cheyenne women's painting can be placed firmly within the Algonquian matrix from which it sprang. A Dsistsistas (Cheyenne proper) rather than a Suhtai origin for parfleche painting is posited, with the time frame for the development of a distinctive Cheyenne variant of the original pan-Algonquian style set in the region of the Great Lakes, perhaps 350 years ago. The few extant pieces of painted hides of the Mesquaki produced in the early 19th century read like a virtual thesaurus of later Cheyenne design motifs, both large and small (fig. 17). The color, too, and even the delicate draftsmanship, prefigures that of the Cheyenne. It cannot be a coincidence that the Mesquaki are close linguistic relatives of the Cheyenne. In addition, the Potawatomi, neighbors of the Mesquaki in the 17th century, are known to have had a rawhide painters' guild similar to that of the Cheyenne (Hodge 1910: Vol. II: 289; Morrow 1975: 86). 

On the other hand, the earliest example of a bag identified by my informants as Suhtai (but listed as eastern Dakota), shows a strong relationship to Dakota/Lakota painted rawhide designs, except for the prominent place given to the hetan'eho (man power) design, which continued to be used in later Suhtai rawhide bags (Coleman field notes; cf. Powell 1969: 438).

Given the widespread distribution of particular compositions, design elements, and symbology among the Plains Algonquian formerly residing in the Great Lakes area, we may posit a pan-Algonquian design vocabulary once common to them all-and almost certainly an influence on Siouxan design elements as well. The Cheyenne brought to this ancient tradition a fluent structural relationship between design and container, and a notable refinement of style. In this they surpassed their predecessors.

Like all painting, rawhide art is expressive of the emotion of space. The great power of Cheyenne art derives, paradoxically, from its restraint and delicacy: the potency of its refined color, the tension of its lines, and the careful considerations of scale. But above all, it derives from the careful and considered balance between positive and negative space, between matter and spirit, between the Everyday World and the Real World, of which this world is but a shadow.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Early research among the Cheyennes was made possible by grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Mike Cowdrey has contributed much to my research. My heartfelt thanks also go to Will Roscoe, Imre Nagy, and many others, as well as to the museums who allowed me access to their collections. None of the research would have been possible, however, without the generosity of the many Cheyenne who shared their valuable information with me. In keeping with their wishes, I have not indicated individual informants within the text. Of particular importance to the gathering of information relevant to this paper have been the following elders: of the Northern Cheyennes, Joe Little Coyote Sr., Donlin Many Bad Horses, James Red Cloud, John Seminole, Elva Stands In Timber, and the late Josephine Glenmore; of the Southern Cheyennes, Bertha Little Coyote, Raymond Stone Calf, and the late Inez All Runner, Inez Buffalo, and Roy Bull Coming. Comparative information from the Northern Arapahoes came from Mary Agnes Goggles, Inez Old Man, and Jane Warren. To all, I extend my gratitude for their patience, kindness, and generosity.

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Schlesier, Karl 1987: The Wolves of Heaven: Cheyenne Shamanism, Ceremonies, and Prehistoric Origins. University of Oklahoma Press, Norman.
Schwartz, Warren E. 1988: The Last Contrary: The Story of Wesley Whiteman (Black Bear). The Center for Western Studies, Sioux Falls, South Dakota.
Thomas, Davis and Karin Ronnefeldt, eds. 1976: People of the First Man: Life Among the Plains Indians in Their Final Days of Glory. E.P. Dutton, New York.
Torrence, Gaylord 1994: The American Indian Parfleche: A Tradition of Abstract Painting. University of Washington Press, Seattle.

PHOTOGRAPHY

Photos © Winfield Coleman, Scott McCue, John W. Painter, Gaylord Torrence, Hermann Vonbank. 
All drawings were rendered by the author.

 

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