CBS News – A war shirt worn by Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce tribe that can be seen in a painting hanging in the Smithsonian Institution sold Saturday for $877,500 at auction, organizers said. Mike Overby, an organizer of the annual Coeur d’Alene Art Auction, said the shirt that sold in Reno is considered to be one of the most important Native American artifacts to ever come to auction. It had been expected to bring from $800,000 to $1.2 million at auction, he said. ”Anything associated with Chief Joseph is highly desirable, and that’s a pretty special shirt,” he told The Associated Press. Chief Joseph wore the shirt in 1877 in the earliest known photo of him, and again while posing for a portrait by Cyrenius Hall in 1878. That painting, which was used for a U.S. postage stamp, hangs in the Smithsonian. The poncho-style war shirt was made of two soft skins, likely deerskin. It features beadwork with bold geometric designs and bright colors. Warriors kept such prestigious garments clean in a saddle bag on their horse or carefully stored while in camp, to be worn only on special occasions, American Indian scholar Theodore Brasser noted.

I don’t know who Chief Joseph War was but my man wore some pretty dope rags. If I was still a pothead or the star of a Peruvian flute band I’d drop $877 k in a heartbeat to walk around with this get-up. Chicks would be all over you. Kinda sucks that it’s used and still so expensive but what do you expect when they made the thing with two different types of deerskin and it has all those pimp designs woven through it. You get what you pay for and make no mistake that cloth is a certified piece of pussy magnetism. You show up to a Phish concert in this thing and everybody gettin’ pregnant.