The images on this robe relate an autobiographical narrative commemorating a warrior’s victories in battle. It was painted by a war hero from the Apsáalooke (Crow) Nation in the late nineteenth century, and he would have worn it as his personal robe. During an interview in January 2021, curator Nina Sanders (Apsáalooke) was able to identify that war hero as Two Leggings based on the imagery depicted on his shield. Two Leggings is depicted on the upper right, wearing a war bonnet.

The painting depicts a wartime coup count, indicated by the coup stick carried by Two Leggings. The robe is adorned with a blanket strip made from late nineteenth-century trade-economy beads manufactured in Italy, France, and Czechoslovakia (now the Czech Republic); it was likely beaded onto a buffalo-hide surface and stitched onto the robe later. The robe also features a red wool appliqué with a beadworked edge.

—Jordan Poorman Cocker, Henry Luce Foundation Curatorial Scholar for Indigenous Painting Collection Research, 2021

This text was developed from an interview with Field Museum curator Nina Sanders (Apsáalooke) by Jordan Poorman Cocker, January 25, 2021