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Rare & Important Wanapum Ghost Dance Shield

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles Start Price:25.00 USD Estimated At:15,000.00 - 30,000.00 USD
Rare & Important Wanapum Ghost Dance Shield
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This is a fantastic and scarce important Wanapum Native American Indian shield from the Ghost Dance movement. The shield is from the 19th Century originating from the Wanapum Indians of the Washington State Columbia River area. A Wanapum medicine man and self-proclaimed prophet named Smohalla began teaching his tribe a dance with songs about the white man dying off and of all the Native peoples returning to a traditional way of life such as hunting, fishing, and living free once again in harmony with nature, away from controlled reservation life. It is said that several Paiutes visited Smohalla and his small band, who were now living along the Columbia River, later a Paiute medicine man named Wokova or Jack Wilson had a dream about all the things being told by the Wanapum and the Ghost Dance Movement began. The Wanapum are said to be some of the first to use the Ghost Dance symbols such as the ones used in this shield as the waterbird, morning stars, half-moon and full moon symbols. Any early Wanapum or Columbia River area Ghost Dance relics are extremely and highly sought after with very few examples existing in private collections and museums. The shield is in very good well-preserved condition and is constructed of wetted and stretched Great American Bison Buffalo hide over a bent twig frame and secured with hide lacing and sinew sewing. The shield is painted with old ocher pigment mineral dyes of black, yellow and green which has faded over time and use. Other early documented Wanapum artifacts all have these same three colors. There are strips of old trade cloth tied on with bucksking lacing in the center of the shield and smaller strips tied onto the bottom edge of the shield. The shield shows some fading and discoloration from age, but otherwise the shiled is in very good condition and is truly a rare and important artifact. This shield was formerly in the respected collection of well-known collector Arnold Marcus Chernoff of Chicago, and along with the Paiute drum in this sale, was part of an American Indian weapons exhibit Chernoff won first place for in a National Rifle Association conference and exhibition in the early 1970's. Chernoff had several authentic and rare Ghost Dance objects in his collection. He sold this piece in the early 1980's to fellow collector and one-time president of the Central States Archaeological Society Ben Thompson of Missouri. Thompson later sold the shield to fellow collector Tom Hardy of Indianapolis in the early 2000's. Measures overall 22 inches across. Provenance: Ex-collection of Arnold Marcus Chernoff, Tom Hardy and Ben Thompson.