Lakota Tipi - Akta Lakota Museum & Cultural Center

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Lakota Tipi

Smoke flaps
Can be adjusted to retain heat or to ventilate.
Wooden lodge pins
Removed to fold the tepee for traveling.
Wooden bow
Shaped by heating and bending. Bowstrings are made of sinew, rawhide or twisted vegetable fiber.
Shield
Some battle shields are painted with pictures from visions, which offer spiritual protection. Highly decorated ones are too sacred for the battle and can also endanger the bearer by calling special attention to his status.
Backrest
The Plains family's easy chair.
Cradleboard
Holds the fur-wrapped infant securely.
Woman's sewing bag
Hide pouch holds awls, sinew thread, beads, quills, grasses, paints, small bones and ermine tails.
Buffalo-paunch cooking pot
Contains the day's soup of buffalo meat, wild turnips, and wild onions.
Heated stones
Used for cooking.
Altar
For burning sweet grass or other incense during ceremonial occasions.
Buffalo-skin bedding
Rolled and stored during the day.
Parfleches
The closets and drawers of the tepee.
Tepee lining
Additional layer of skin, often brightly painted.
Medicine bag
Special parfleche for sacred items that represent things seen in the owner's visions.
Quiver with arrows
Arrows are striped with colored paint to mark ownership.
Tepee poles
Three or four make the basic framework of the tepee. Long poles are prized where tail, straight trees are scarce. Same poles become the frame of the travois when traveling.

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Akta Lakota Museum & Cultural Center

St. Joseph's Indian School

1301 North Main Street · Chamberlain, SD 57325

(800) 798-3452 · aktalakota@stjo.org

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