Subject: wic'âša 'shirt wearer' warrior
Culture: Lakota Sioux
Setting: Plains Wars, 1862-1890
Object: costume
Headdress
* Bancroft-Hunt/Forman 1981 p65
"The Sioux shaved horn war bonnet and eagle feather trailer symbolized the collective deeds of the followers of a particular war leader, and the right to wear it was bestowed on the man who, by common consent, was the outstanding warrior of the group. This right was given in a ceremony at which each feather as held up while the deed it stood for was recited; the feather was then handed to the bonnet-maker for sewing into place."
* Racinet 1988 p68
"Also great horsemen and hunters, the Sioux have a costume similar to that of the Yutes, with the difference that headdresses are worn. Feathers for these are generally taken from wild cocks and pheasants, but chiefs take them from eagles and birds of prey. Each headdress is designed by the wearer to fit his own self-image, and its style often determines the name: 'Big Chief Bustard', for example, or 'White Crow'."
Robe
* Fashion, costume, and culture volume 2 2004 p365
"Sioux Indians of the Plains decorated their buffalo robes with painted symbols to indicate their age, sex, marital status, and tribal status, among other things. Sioux men trying to find a wife wore buffalo robes with horizontal strips that featured four medallions; they also painted red handprints on their cloaks if they had been wounded in battle or black handprints if they had killed an enemy."
Shirt
* Carnegie Museum of Natural History > Alcoa Foundation Hall of American Indians
"Warrior Shirts
Special shirts, distinguished by the hair fringe on each sleeve, were traditionally worn by four leading men of each Lakota band.
The hair was emblematic of enemy scalps taken in battle. However, the locks of hair were generally donated by women in mourning (who cut off all their hair) or even taken from a horse's tail. Many tribes do not want objects with human remains to be exhibited publicly."
* Dubin 2003 p84 f134
"Shirt Wearers were community leaders as well as warriors. Even after Plains warfare ceased, embellished shirts were often worn at tribal social and political events. They signified that the wearer was a man of importance among his people. In addition to maintaining the triangular neckpiece (possibly symbolizing the head of the animal that had once decorated this area on most buckskin war shirts), Dakota artisans painted the shirt's upper half blue, for the sky, and the lower half for the earth. Hair fringes on such shirts were incorrectly associated with scalp locks taken in warfare. More often, the hair belonged to people, such as family, in the wearer's charge."
