The lot features an Indian tanned hide polychrome painted Ghost Dance Shirt from the Plains Indians, ex-Yankton Museum. The shirt is attributed to hold the symbols from the Ghost Dance movement and is comprised of Indian brain-tanned buckskin sewn together with added fringes, a blue stroud clothe collar in a “Tunic” style, with shorter arms, longer front and waist-length back. There are older faded and richer bolder painted symbols along the shirt including symbols documented from the Ghost Dance such as the five-point stars, half-moons and waterbirds on the front and back of the shirt. The shirt is covered in yellow ocher / ochre and old powder paints which have flaked in some areas. The shirt was part of the one room museum display at the Yankton Indian College Museum in Yankton, South Dakota that was founded by Reverend Joseph Ward in the late 19th Century. The shirt was said to be on display in the museum collection along with another Ghost Dance Shirt attributed to the Lakota Sioux, until it was closed and sold in 1985. The contents were purchases by Jim Aplan of Piedmont, South Dakota, noted artifacts dealer. Aplan later sold the shirt to collector and Plains Indian writer / scholar Ted Levy. Levy noted the shirt as being possibly attributed to the Pawnee due to the way it was pieced together as well as the style. The shirt was likely touch up painted, repaired and altered by the family members the shirt was handed down through. Some of the paint appears older and some later. The sewing is cotton trade thread. The shirt has some stiffness but overall is supple / soft. Measures overall 37”H by 54”W from cuff to cuff, shoulders are 16.25”W from shoulder to chest sewn connection.