Democratic Sentinel, Volume 7, Number 6, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 March 1883 — The Shirt of an Aboriginal. [ARTICLE]

The Shirt of an Aboriginal.

Over both shoulders and down the foil length of each arm axe embroidered broad bands of brightly colored porcupine quills. and from both arms bangs a vary heavy buckskin fringe twentr inches in depth. At intervals along the frffige on the left arm are woven in scalp-locks, fourteen in number, showing the number of enemies that its wearer had slain. Hanging down atthe front and back are two pointed ornamental flaps, about eight inches long and three broad at the top, trimmed with a fine buckskin fringe and beautifully ornamented with bead-work. On the front and back are painted or stained, in a manner known only to the untutored red, sixty representations of horse shoes, showing the number of horses and ponies that its proud owner had stolen from his foes. But even a Sioux chief, bedecked with all the gaudy trappings that delight his race, must himself succumb to the grim warrior Death at last; and a small bullet hole in the left shoulder of the shirt, with stains of blood still visible down the front, tells plainly the manner of its former owner’s taking off.— Fargo (Dak.) Republican.