Elk Skin Armor
date: label: Accession Date
content: 25 Jun 1886
notes: label: Notes
content: From card: "Decorated, very heavy. Skin Armor (Cue It Wul). Made of a large elk skin, tanned, folded on itself. The outer portion falls as a skirt to the ankles, which the inner portion reaches only to the knees, and the hard neck portion of the hide comes in front and acts as a plastron to protect the belly and thighs. Joined over the shoulders by leather straps worked through a series of slashes. Zigzag cut for the left arm. Fringed at the side and tying thongs on the right. The front and back decorated with cusp, dots, circles, and lines in red and blue paint. It is worn so as to cover the left side, with the left arm through the slit, and the head through the opening. The suit has been worn by several generations and in some of the modern battles with the whites, in which the bullet marks were received. There are also arrow cuts which were received in battle. The cusps and triangular figures are intended to denote the number of enemies slain and captives taken. (See "The Ray Collections," "Report of the Smithsonian Institution, 1886, 1, p. 205." Width 26 inches; height 47 inches. Hupa Indians, California. Illus. in USNM AR, 1893; Pl. 20; p. 644."
label: Record Last Modified
content: 7 Jul 2021
label: Specimen Count
content: 1
place: label: Place
content: Not Given, Humboldt County / Hoopa Valley Reservation, California, United States, North America
topic: label: Topic
content: Ethnology
culture: label: Culture
content: Hupa
setName: label: See more items in
content: Anthropology
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: NMNH - Anthropology Dept.
identifier: label: Accession Number
content: 017688
label: USNM Number
content: E126908-0
objectType: label: Object Type
content: Armor