painted with the "sunburst pattern" surrounded by a rectangular border additional and diamond elements; affixed with a paper tag: AGC 4/16/27 Painted (Sun) Crowe Yellow Bear Skin robe (This is big medicine among Indians) / AGC

length 76 inches x width 72 inches

Another important symbolic motif of the abstract hide is the "sunburst" or "star" pattern.  The primary element of this pattern is a series of long, thin diamond forms, each divided horizontally, which touch at the middle and wrap around to form a circle.  Every diamond is the same size, but one triangular half of a diamond may be white, while the other is black.  When a small circle or wheel made up of these elongated diamonds is painted in the center of the robe, another, larger circle is added around it.  Other circles can be added, each larger than the other, until the desired effect is achieved.  The finished structure resembles the sun, with layers and layers of bursts (Horse Capture, Vitart, Waldberg, and West 1993: 87-88).