Plains Indian Art at the Met

The Metropolitan Museum is mounting a major exhibition of art from the plains Indians, gathered from museums around the world, and the Times has a review and slide show. Above, girl's beaded leather dress, c. 1900.

Ghost Dance Drum by George Beaver, 1891-1892.

Drawing by Wacochachi, who lived in what is now Iowa around 1830, showing the artist's world.

Effigy pipe, carved pipestone, depicting the hero variously known as Redhorn or He Who Wears Human Heads as Earrings. Mississippian, 1100-1200 CE.

Beaded gauntlets, c. 1900.

War club, c, 1800-1820.

Quilt by Rebecca Blackwater, c. 1915.

And this astonishing item, a drawing by the Sioux chief Black Hawk, of Black Hawk's War, of his personal visions:

This work is one of seventy-six drawings by Black Hawk that were bound into a book by William Edward Caton. Here, the artist depicts himself as a powerful supernatural being called a Destroyer. He rides a Buffalo Eagle, whose tail is represented by an arching rainbow. Spots representing hail cover both Buffalo Eagle and rider, and jagged power lines connect them.