Horse Dance Staff

Provenance:  Collected on the Pine Ridge Reservation, South Dakota

The use of horse effigy staffs among the Teton Sioux was a privilege restricted to warriors whose horse had been killed in battle. Among the Teton, these objects were referred to as “horse memorials” (Ted Brasser: personal communication, 9/96). Owners carried them in hand during warrior society ceremonials (see: Ewers 1986, fig. 133), and also in the secular Grass Dance. When re-enacting their exploits in war dances, the horse staff was held between the legs in the manner of a hobby horse (see:
AIA 1978, pg. 59).

This superb horse dance staff is the largest known example of this form. Carved from a single limb and retaining remnants of yellow, green and red pigments, this sculpture though highly abstracted, fully captures the strength and grace of a horse in motion.