Native American artifacts donated to heritage center

A former resident of Siletz, Leonard Whitlow II, who graduated with the class of 1957 at Siletz High School, recently returned from Mission, South Dakota. In May, Whitlow donated his sizable collection of Lakota (Sioux) artifacts to the Sinte Gleska University Indian Heritage Center in Mission.

The Native American collection consisted of a dentalia shell woman’s cape, a man’s outfit consisting of a roach head dress, a bone breastplate, beaded leggings and beaded armbands. There was also a woman’s army blanket dress decorated with elks teeth, a child’s leather dress sewn with sinew sewn, several Lakota handmade dolls and pounds of bead work. In addition to the above items there were 30-plus pairs of beaded moccasins, peace pipes, a war club, and other implements, such as a porcupine quill presser, a bone hair parter, and several watch fobs. This is a just portion of the collection.