Rustic Medicine Man Indian Hairpipe Bone Breast Plate - Slight Tear.

This Rustic Medicine Man Indian Hair Pipe Bone Breast Plate has a lot of artistry and natural character. This breast was made from genuine Hair Pipe Bones for the natural look. Unique and colorful trade beads make this artifact a true one of a kind work of art. Plus, this breast plate has genuine leather straps. It measures approximately 8-1/2" by 13-1/4". Ribbons made from artificial sinew tie off around the neck. This one has a slight tear in the left leather strap, nothing too serious, though. It can be easily repaired and has a discounted price. We got this one on a big close out, so we don't know who made it.

Tight fitting breastplates made of bone were used by Indians for protection in heated battles. Bone hair pipe, usually from small animals, and beads were fashioned personally by individuals who imprinted their own style on the plates to gain a spiritual advantage over their opponents. Hair pipe and Beads, to honor Earth Mother, were held together with leather.

A true status symbol, bone breastplates were in wide use as a type of armor by the early 19th Century. Today they are part of many ceremonial events. Long, hollow hair pipe dates far earlier than the pre-Colombian period for Indian ornamental dress. Its popularity grew from Eastern tribes use of shells, bone and stone. Eventually Colonial traders introduced glass and copper to necklace design in the 17th and 18th Centuries. Plains Indians used some hair pipe design for earrings - bone was preferred over shell. By the 19th Century larger, elaborate breastplates were made for ceremonial occasions.

For nearly two centuries white men who have traded with the Indians of the Eastern Woodlands and the Great Plains have referred to a tubular bead measuring 1 inch or more in length which they carried in stock by the name of "hair pipe." The origin of the name is obscure. Certainly the name itself fails to suggest the variety of ways in which Indians employed these long beads as articles of personal adornment. Nor should the application of this name to articles made by Whites for trade to Indians identify this form of ornament as a white man's invention. It appears more probable that the trade hair pipe was a white man's substitute for a type of long, cylindrical ornament which had its origin in prehistoric Indian culture.