The lot features a fine Yanktonai Sioux Black War Bonnet Society painted buffalo robe circa 1980’s in the pattern of or possibly by Yanktonai Sioux artist Herman Red Elk (1918-1986) with accompanying tag. The hide shows a large winter Great American Bison / Buffalo that has been polychrome painted and porcupine quilled in the iconic Black War Bonnet Society pattern and is accompanied with a tag marked, “BLACK WAR BONNET SOCIET 80’S / -YANKTONIA SIOUX HERMAN RED ELK”. Herman Red Elk (1918-1986) was a renowned Yanktonai Sioux artist, and was born in 1918 in Popular, Montana on the Fort Peck Indian Reservation. Later in 1960 he moved to Rapid City to recuperate from tuberculosis at the Sioux Sanatorium, here he gained his first experience in the arts under the vocational training program at eh sanatorium. He undertook further art training through a 1963 summer art workshop at Black Hills Stage College and additionally studied under noted Yanktonai Sioux artist Oscar Howe at the University of South Dakota during the summers of 1964 and 1965. From 1963 to 1964, under a project sponsored by the Indian Arts and Crafts Board’s Sioux Indian Museum, Red Elk pursued research and practiced the methods and designs of traditional Lakota hide painting. In 1969, he accepted a position as the Museum Aide at the Sioux Indian Museum, where he would remain until shortly before his death in 1986. The Black War Bonnet similar design that is painted on this and other hides has previously been cited by noted anthropologist John Ewers as being a pattern unique to the Lakota’s. A typical Black War Bonnet design consists of nested concentric circles of pairs of isosceles triangles with their bases slightly apart and their tips pointing in opposite directs, all aligned with a central point. The colors and patterns found in the Black War Bonnet design are highly symbolic. It is a stylized representation of an eagle feather headdress, as seen from above. The color black carries meanings associated with danger and death in Lakota culture. White symbolizes the spirit world of ancestors and the color red represents both blood and life. Taken together, these colors and patterns confer protection to the wearer of the robe, and symbolize his prowess and strength as a warrior. The rug is well kept with mostly soft hide, some paint loss, most of the hair is thick being a winter Buffalo. The rug appears to be from the late-20th-century with the tag implying that it is by Yanktonai Sioux artist Herman Red Elk at the end of his life. The tag could also be referencing his iconic work. The center shows three Indian buffalo parfleche pinwheels that are covered in porcupine quill quillwork showing colors of white, purple, red. The center concentric circles or mandala shows sections of porcupine quillwork incorporated into the circles with the central wheel porcupine quilled and having Indian tanned hide fringes. Measures overall (Conor McMahon, Indian Arts and Crafts Board)