Plains Indian Studies - Smithsonian Institution Libraries

106 SMITHSONIAN CONTRIBUTIONS TO ANTHROPOLOGY
medals of different sizes, certificates, and other
gifts including quasimilitary coats. When the
Spanish took control of the Mississippi Valley
from France, they simply continued the French
policies and told the tribes that the gifts of the
two nations were the same and "no innovation is
being made in anything" (Ewers, 1974:272).
The Spanish regime passed out medals, canes,
coats, flags, and certificates to their allies west of
the Mississippi. In 1787, there were nine laced
coats for Missouri Basin chiefs on inventory in St.
Louis (Wedel, 1955:148). Spanish presents for the
Utes and Comanches included blue wool capes
and coats "with red lapels for the big chiefs, threecornered
hats, and some medals" (Carroll and
Haggard, 1967:135). The Mexicans continued
the long-established tradition among the Southern
Plains and Southwestern tribes. Travellers as
late as 1850 frequently encountered Indians wearing
blue or red Mexican coats with reversed
facings (Barlett, 1965:119).
The United States policy after the Revolution
followed that of Great Britain's in colonial times.
Secretary of War Henry Knox told President
George Washington that "the British Government
had the practice of making the Indians
presents of silver medals, gorgets, uniform clothing,
and a sort of military commission . . . the
Southern Indians are exceedingly desirous of receiving
similar gifts from the United States. . . .
The policy of gratifying them cannot be doubted"
(U.S. Congress, 1851:60).
The young American nation's policymakers
took General Knox's advice to heart and issued
special presidential medals, certificates, and military
coats. When the Corps of Discovery ascended
the Missouri in 1804-1805, it carried
several red coats with blue facings as gifts for the
Indians. Meriwether Lewis and William Clark
met the Brule chief, Weucha or Shake Hand, in
what is now South Dakota, and presented him
with a flag, medal, certificate and beads, "to
which we added a chiefs coat; that is, a richly
laced uniform of the United States artillery corps,
and a cocked hat and red feather." The chief
thanked them and remarked that the Spanish
had given him a medal, "but nothing to keep it
from my skin; but now you give me a medal and
clothes," as had the English (Biddle, 1922:101-
102).
The fur traders had a pressing need to maintain
the good will of their customers. Established practice
required a trader to make presents of liquor,
clothing, or other goods to head men in order to
secure the trade of their followers, embarrass the
competition, and protect themselves and their
property from physical harm. As an example of
this custom, Robert Campbell at Fort William,
North Dakota in 1833, mentioned giving the
Assiniboine chief, Capot Bleu, a "blue chief coat
shirt and breech cloth. He is well satisfied"
(Brooks, 1964:27).
Cloth coats were typical among the Plains
Indians by the beginning of the nineteenth century.
Pierre-Antoine Tabeau remarked that
among the Brule Sioux in the period 1803-1805,
"the clothes of both men and women are scarlet;
the coats of the men are decorated in false gold,
with a blue collar ornamented with silver"
(Wedel, 1955:148).
Although governments and trading companies
passed them out as gifts, chief's coats were a
standard item of trade available at a set price. At
St. Peter's River, Minnesota, in 1786, Sioux traders
reckoned a fine scarlet coat at about S35.00,
or two month's wages for the average fur company
employee (Thwaites, 1892:94). Toward the
end of their popularity in the 1850s, a chiefs coat
cost a style-conscious Teton warrior ten buffalo
robes. A typical tanned robe was valued at $3.50,
so neither inflation nor competition had changed
the price of a chiefs coat in half a century (Hanson,
1971:3). To give an idea of the importance
of the fancy coats in the trade, the inventory for
1831 at Fort Union, North Dakota, is helpful:
scarlet chiefs, 47; blue chiefs, 18; blue chiefs
common, 4 (Thompson, 1968:132). One Sioux
trader the same year said his business was suffering
greatly because he had no chiefs coats or
green blankets (Abel, 1932:345). Any Plains Indian
who was important, or thought himself so,
saw such a fancy cloth coat as the standard of