Shield
date: label: Accession Date
content: 26 Mar 1891
name: label: Collector
content: Capt. John G. Bourke
notes: label: Notes
content: From card: "Sent J. Mooney and ret. by him. Crescent moon outlined in red, black, yellow at top. Top background green w/ bird outline in black, yellow. Bottom background red w/ turtle-man figure. Fields separated by wavy yellow line. Bunches of feathers wrapped in red cloth, 2 bunches of metal bells."
label: Notes
content: Detail showing turtle is illus. Fig. 6, p. 90 in Nagy, Imre, "The Cosmic Turtle: A Unique Representation of Cheyenne Cosmological Beliefs", pp. 86-95 in Feest, Christian F. 2001. Studies in American Indian art: a memorial tribute to Norman Feder. Altenstadt, Germany: European Review of Native American Studies. Nagy identifies this shield as "Northern Cheyenne, ca. 1865. Owned by A-Crow-Split-His-Nose, one of the leaders of the Elk Soldier Society. Collected by General Ranald Mackenzie in 1876."
label: Notes
content: According to Bourke's diary entry for December 1876 (vol. 14, p. 1443, Library USMA at West Point), this was captured from Dull Knife's village by Shoshone scouts, who presented it to Bourke. An accompanying sketch confirms that the design is the same as on this shield.
label: Record Last Modified
content: 4 Jul 2025
label: Specimen Count
content: 2
place: label: Place
content: United States, North America
topic: label: Topic
content: Ethnology
culture: label: Culture
content: Cheyenne (Tsitsistas, Suhtai), Northern
setName: label: See more items in
content: Anthropology
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: NMNH - Anthropology Dept.
identifier: label: Accession Number
content: 024142
label: USNM Number
content: E151896-0
objectType: label: Object Type
content: Shield