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Couple sitting in corn field, women with bow and arrow name glyph, with back to house and tipi, camp and river (crops) behind | Elk person - facing a loop and beaded disk with feather drops above a painted elk figure cutout

Ethnographic Notes

Right Page: Deer and elk stags, which assemble harems of females, are seen 'by Cheyenne philosophers as sources of sexual potency and inspiration. The object depicted at the left on Page 79 is a talismanic necklace imbued with the attractant powers of the mule ("black tail") deer. The figure of the deer probably was cut out of parfleche (semi-tanned rawhide), and its details painted. Alternatively, it may have been beaded like the lizard amulet in Figure 8. Note, however, the red and blue lines of "breath" issuing from the figure's nostrils---it is alive with mystical power. The necklace includes a beaded medallion above the deer figure. Two, small eagle feather pendants, and a pair of red-dyed eagle fluffs hang down the back, as the necklace is worn. A pair of mule deer tails (emblematic of the phallus) are affixed at the top of the necklace, with what is probably a blue-cloth sachet of herbal perfume between them. These would also hang down the back. The anthropomorphic figure with a deer's head at the right is intended as the mystical source which empowers the necklace.

Left Page: [A] similar mule deer tail is worn on the artist's head, and might easily be mistaken for an eagle feather. Underneath the artist's blanket, we may be certain he is also wearing his powerful new necklace.


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Provenance

Ralph T. Coe Foundation, Coe-Cheyenne Ledger (NA 1154); Brant Mackley Gallery, Hummelstown, PA; Southern Cheye...

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Document Info
Plate No: 41
Page No: 78-79
Media: Pencil and colored pencil
Dimensions: Small commercial notebook: 8.25 x 4.825 inches - cover, 5.625 x 4.75 inches - pages
Custodian
Ralph T. Coe Foundation, Santa Fe, New Mexico
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