Page from mail order catalogues with baby bonnets
|
This baby bonnet was made relatively recently, in 1991, by Todd Yellow Cloud Augusta, a
member of the Oglala band of the
Lakota tribe.
In traditional Plains culture, beadwork was
the art of women. In the 19th century they would obtain undecorated cloth baby bonnets from
the Sears Roebuck Catalogue, and then richly decorate them with glass beads or porcupine
quills. Although Augusta has broken a Plains tradition by doing beadwork (women's work), he
continues another tradition - that only men can create representational art. Here, the bonnet
is covered with
pictographs,
scenes showing daily life in times past.
Ho! Ye Sun, Moon, Stars, all ye that move in the heavens,
I bid you hear me!
Into your midst has come a new life.
Consent ye, I implore!
Make its path smooth, that it may reach the brow of the first hill!
- Omaho song introducing a child to the cosmos
|