Plea for Sioux shirt

A HEARTFELT plea was made yesterday in Glasgow by descendants of Sioux warriors, killed at the Battle of Wounded Knee in 1890, for the return of a shirt believed to have been taken from one of the bodies.

Marcella Le Beau, secretary of the Wounded Knee Survivors' Association, argued their case at a civic hearing where she said the shirt, on display in Glasgow's Kelvingrove art gallery, should be brought home to allow people to grieve. Mrs Le Beau, from South Dakota, who was dressed in a black suit and wore an Indian necklace, was surrounded by artefacts from all over the world when she spoke at the hearing in the city's famed Burrell Collection museum.

She spoke of the emotional and spiritual value of the shirt, known as a "ghost shirt", which her ancestors believed would protect them in battle.