Mandan Drum

Description

Drums and rattles were the most common Plains musical instruments. This particular drum belonged to Mató-Tópe, the Mandan chief pictured in Plates 317 and 318. The design, representing buffalo tracks and lightning, is red on a black background. The notation on the side of the drum says "reddish." In Tableau 48 of the published atlas, the drum is shown with a drumstick wrapped in strips of bright cloth and festooned with leather thongs.