Buckskin & Buffalo

This one-of-a-kind book reveals the lives of the North American Plains Indians through the most vital aspect of their art - the beautiful and functional objects made from deer and buffalo, the creatures that were essential to their lives. Presented in full image and exquisite detail, these items of clothing, furnishings, robes, blankets, and shields each have their own pattern and vitality that show the particular traits of the tribes that produced them in an age-old way of life that disappeared with the buffalo at the end of the nineteenth century. These remarkable objects of Native American heritage are selected from the collections of prominent museums around the world. The author brings these items and the people who made them to life, with details of the symbolism, the colors, and the porcupine quills, seed beads, and feathers that were used to transform buckskin and buffalo into everyday or ceremonial objects of art.