Model

Tall and handsome, the Crow and their Hidatsa relatives were among the most colorful tribesmen of the northwestern Plains.  The figure depicts a high-ranking warrior dressed in his finest ceremonial clothing: hide shirt, leggings and buffalo robe lavishly decorated with beads and porcupine quills and sporting their owner’s war deeds.  The pipe-tomahawk was a highly-prized attribute, a symbol of war and peace.

Using a birch-bark cone as a loudspeaker, Two Guns, a Blackfoot hunter, mimics the call of a moose to lure it in for the kill. Dressed in winter gear, he wears a capote (overcoat) made from a trade blanket, an otter fur hat and grass-stuffed leggings and moccasins. His trusty flintlock, a Northwest Trade gun, was to become a favorite among mountain men.  The ubiquitous knife hangs from his belt in a brass studded leather sheath.

Along with their close allies the Sauk, the warlike Fox (the People of the Red Earth) lived in the Great Lakes region before being moved to Oklahoma after the Black Hawk War of 1832.  Although later assimilated into the Plains culture, the Sauk and Fox retained several Eastern elements in their clothing and weaponry, e.g. roach headdress, front-seamed leggings, bear claw necklace and gunstock club.  With some slight changes, this kit can be easily made to represent a member of the following tribes : Iowa, Ponca, Oto, Osage, Pawnee.

One of the six Apache tribes, the Jicarilla lived in the Colorado –New Mexico border region, the meeting point of three distinct cultures : Plains, Basin and Pueblo. The neighboring influences naturally reflected on their clothing which, along with the Jicarilla’s own contributions like the beaded cape, wide leather belt and hairstyle, offers a unique and graceful blend of several conflicting styles. This model kit is also adaptable to the following tribes : Ute, Mescalero and Lipan Apache.

During the first half of the nineteenth century, hundreds of hardy young men set out for the West looking for beaver, the fur of which was in great demand in America and Europe.  Their life in the wilderness was a lonely, arduous and dangerous one. Their enemies included Indians, wild beasts and ruthless rivals. They also became the first explorers of the uncharted regions and played a great part in the opening of the West. They called themselves ’trappers’ or ‘mountaineers’. We know them as the Mountain Men.  The real life fur trapper was a professional working under the most extreme conditions. His clothing and accoutrements were the tools of his survival in the hostile environment. and were chosen above all for their practability and usefulness. While a few objects reflect certain Indian influence, the style was definitively European without the fancy beadwork and bear claw necklaces so often found in the romanticised interpretations of Frederick Remington and later artists.

Following the Sand Creek Massacre of November 1864, the Cheyenne and their Lakota and Arapaho allies assembled for war, and began retaliatory raids against white civilians and soldiers along the South Platte River Road in Colorado.  Among them were the Dog Soldiers, militant and aggressive warriors, who became the sole protectors of their people after the destruction of Black Kettle’s Cheyenne village.  The model depicts White Bird returning from a raid with a cavalry bugle among other captured trophies. Armed with a lance and protected by his Bear paw shield, he wears a calico shirt, blanket leggings, silver armbands and pectoral with najas pendants. His war bonnet of upright eagle feathers is common to the Dog Soldiers.  Fully equipped with a silver-mounted bridle, pad saddle and beaded blanket, his buckskin horse is prepared for war with notched ears, clubbed tail and a medicine marking on its left thigh.

As one of the prominent warrior societies, the Kit-fox society was noted for its concern for the Sioux people in times of peace as well as in times of war.  Like the little animal they drew their name from, fox-men (tokala) were active and wily on the warpath, heroic in the face of danger and ready to meet any emergency.  The fourteen-part kit depicts a tokala whip-bearer dressed in the spectacular society insignia: fox-skin cape, red and yellow face paint and serrated society whip.

The universal myth of the American Cowboy took its roots after the Civil War, when thousands of defeated Texans returned home and were looking for a new start.  Having heard that meat was in great demand in the north and the east, they began to hunt the half-wild longhorns, gather them up in large herds and drive them up north on the long and hazardous cattle trails.  The ten-part resin kit depicts the original Texas Cowboy in the ‘uniform of the range’. A miniature rope is also included to make the typical lariat.

(temporarily out of stock!)

Sam Stone was one of the 'free trappers' who chose to stay in the mountains even when the beavers were trapped out (extinct).  These mountain men pushed further into uncharted regions, trading with the Indians and adopting their lifestyle by marrying native women. They became the explorers of the then-aptly named Wild West.  As traders, they were also responsible for the cultural exchange between the Euro-Americans and the Indians and to a lesser extent between the distant Indian tribes themselves.  With their knowledge of the terrain and access to the native tribes, they were later (sometimes reluctantly) used as guides to immigrant convoys or as scouts for the army, ironically defeating the very purpose for which they stayed in the mountains: to live a solitary life in an untouched nature.  The 15-part figure depicts a mountain man in his heavily Indian-influenced attire. Some of the clothing were made 'in the field' while other items were obtained from the native tribes that he encountered.

Apache, ’the enemy’ in Zuni language, a fitful name for one of the fiercest tribal groups ever encountered by the white man.  Essentially a warrior people. cunning and resourceful, the Apache were formidable guerrilla fighters and the last natives to surrender to the white expansion.  The finely-detailed sculpture depicts a typical White Mountain Apache serving as a U.S. Army scout during the Apache Wars of the 1880’s.  He wears the characteristic wrap-around cloth breechclout over reservation-issued drawers, a calico printed shirt decorated with silk ribbons, a waistcoat and a pair of knee-high buckskin moccasins with upturned disk-toes.  He is armed with an 1873 trapdoor Springfield .45/70 rifle and wears a Mills canvas cartridge belt under a civilian looped 'prairie' belt decorated with a silver conch.  The 17-part kit also comprises a cast scenic base and a choice of headgear.

Among the Northern Plains tribes, the pleasure of dressing in one’s finest clothes and parading was a cherished tradition which endures to this day.  The annual Crow Fair created in 1904 is one such event where the Crow and their neighbours gather to exhibit their livestock and farming produce and to show off their women’s crafts and domestic skills.  The Crow were the richest in horses and the best horsemen. The colourful riding gear was made by the women and included the saddle, head ornament, collar and crupper. The women’s saddle had typically high pommel and cantle ornemented by beaded pendants and was held in place by the crupper. Stirrups were also heavily decorated.  The riding quirt with its carved wood handle and beaded wrist strap was a popular item and was also used as a defense weapon.  The 29 part resin kit depicts Yellow Moon, a Crow mother and her child dressed up in all their finery, getting ready for the parade. She’s carrying her husband’s shield and officer’s staff, a great honour bestowed to worthy wives of prominent warriors.

An amalgam of several south-eastern tribes and runaway slaves, the Seminole were a socio-political alliance with familial, cultural and linguistic ties.  Their resistance to the forced removal from their lands in Georgia and Florida led to the costliest war the US government ever waged against the natives.

The 120 mm figure depicts a warrior during the Second Florida war wearing the typical long shirt and bandolier bag and armed with a hunting rifle. A cast scenic base is also included in the 14-part kit.

Her indigo stroud dress with red and green trimmings is a faithful replica of the famous Crow elk tooth dress. In this case, carved bones duplicate the precious teeth.  Equally typical is her beaded panel belt with the long, brass-studded leather drop.  She’s wearing brightly beaded moccasins and leggings as per women’s fashion in the Plains.  The doll is a miniature version of the little girl, made of cloth filled with dried grass and decorated with seeds.