Painted bison skull

During his research stay at the Pine Ridge Reservation in summer 1909 Frederick Weygold acquired this painted bison skull from his primary informant Chanxaxa. The skull was used in the Oglala hunka ceremony through which a binding social relationship is created
between the participants. Smoke was blown through the skull’s nostrils as a sacrifice and a request to Tatanka, the sacred bison, to grant good hunting to the persons paired in the ceremony.