busts - THE OSAGE BRAVE

On the back of the warrior's head, tied to his scalp lock, hangs his medicine, a stuffed kingfisher skin adorned with glass beads, small stones and cowrie shells. The paintings on the buffalo robe depict its owners deeds.

The characteristics of the Southern Sioux are well represented by the shaved head, the bear claw necklace which was the mark of great bravery and the impressive brass-studded gun stock war-club.

The 1/6th scale bust comprises eight finely-detailed and depicts a typical Osage or Southern Plains warrior. It's based on several contemporary paintings by George Catlin who gave us the most precise of these tribes prior to their removal to their reservation in Oklahoma.

Sometimes referred to as the Missouri tribes, the Southern Sioux (Iowa, Kansa, Missouri, Omaha, Osage, Oto and Ponca) lived on the eastern edge of the Great Plains. They differed from the better-known Lakota / Dakota group in that, beside being buffalo-hunters, they were also farmers and did not live in tepees except when on the march. Their regular houses were oven-shaped, covered with earth and grouped into villages similar to those of the Woodlands tribes.