The right to paint a tipi design is transferred from one person to another in a formal, public ritual.
Whenever we make a new lodge, we paint the design on the new cover. In the old days, we would leave the old cover as an offering to Natosi (Sun). Today, we are afraid someone will take the offering and sell it. Sometimes our people give the old covers to museums where they are preserved as a record of our culture.
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This tipi cover was given to the Glenbow Museum by the Bear Robe family of the Siksika Nation. The traditional rights to the tipi design are still owned by Andrew Bear Robe.
Glenbow Museum Photo
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