War Shield Big Bow's
date: label: Accession Date
content: 14 Nov 1947
name: label: Collector
content: Brig. Gen. James D. Glennan
label: Donor Name
content: Frances Glennan
notes: label: Notes
content: From card: "Thick rawhide base (unpainted); skin cover (now partially destroyed by insects) painted brown, red and blue. Necklace of tubular shell and bone and blue trade beads, part of bone whistle and small pouch attached. Entered as No. 77 in Glennan's catalog: "Big Bow's shield. This is the most valuable article I have and is a famous shield in the Southern Plains. It was made by Kowathy, carried in campaigns by Iseeo the 2nd, by Taybodle, and by Big Bow in wars against the Mexicans, Navajos, Utes, Pawnees, Sioux, Sacs and Foxes, whites and others, and is regarded with veneration by all the Kiowas. Am writing its history, as occasion offers. There is a buffalo-hair headdress inside the cover, on it a necklace, a raven, and some medicine. Used to have a crane bone which fell to pieces from age." Note: A lengthy history of this shield, collected in the sign language by Hugh L. Scott in 1894, appears among the Accession Papers for this specimen. Note See: Metcalf, George. 1968. "Some Notes on an Old Kiowa Shield and Its History". Great Plains Journal. Lawton, Okla. Vol. 8, no. 1, pp. 16 - 30."
label: Notes
content: Rawhide disk with buckskin cover painted red, outlined in darker red, unpainted hemisphere at top with blue crescent in it. Remnants of pendants on each side and at top, necklace of shell and bone hairpipe beads, and blue glass beads tied at top. Badly damaged by insects. 19" (48 cm). Records, Glennan catalog No. 77: Big Bow's shield. This is the most valuable article I have and is a famous shield in the southern plains. It was made by Kowathy, carried in campaigns by Iseeo II, by Taybodle and by Big Bow in wars against the Mexicans, Navajos, Utes, Pawnees, Sioux, Sacs and Foxes, whites and others. It is regarded with veneration by all the Kiowas. Am writing its history, as occasion offers. There is a buffalo-hair headdress inside the cover, on it a necklace, deer's toes, buffalo tail, eagle bone whistle, a raven and some medicine. Used to have crane bone which fell to pieces from age. (C). Associated names: Big Bow; Iseeo II; Taybodle. (from Merrill, William L. et al. 1997. A Guide to the Kiowa Collections at the Smithsonian Institution. Smithsonian Contributions to Anthropology, no. 40. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press.)
label: Record Last Modified
content: 28 Jun 2023
label: Specimen Count
content: 1
place: label: Place
content: Not Given, Oklahoma Territory, United States, North America
topic: label: Topic
content: Ethnology
culture: label: Culture
content: Kiowa
setName: label: See more items in
content: Anthropology
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: NMNH - Anthropology Dept.
identifier: label: Accession Number
content: 177672
label: USNM Number
content: E385891-0
objectType: label: Object Type
content: Shield