BOSTON, MASS. — Dating to the mid-Nineteenth Century, a Plains Indian catlinite pipe topped sales at Skinner’s May 5 auction of American Indian and ethnographic art, selling for $39,975 including premium against its $15/20,000 estimate. An old paper label affixed to the piece embellished with an intricate pattern of birds, animals and arrows suggests its fascinating, if tragic, history. According to the note, the pipe was made by the Sioux chief White Dog, a member of the so-called Dakota 38, executed in Minnesota in 1862. The imprisoned chief is said to have presented the pipe as a peace offering to Lieutenant King before his death. Skinner’s sale offered a diverse array of ethnographic material, much of it African and North American in origin.

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