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Woman's Dress



Background:

Woman's Dress
Woman's Dress
20th century
Leather, cotton, copper, and glass beads
Gift of James David and John David

Key Ideas
Story
Background

Quilling and Beading
Turtle
Woman's Dress

Discussion Questions

The Lakota were once part of a much larger group of people, the Dakota, who lived in the northern woodlands, including the southern two-thirds of Minnesota. Within the Dakota were three closely related language groups-the Dakota-speakers, the Nakota-speakers, and the Lakota-speakers. They did not travel from place to place, but settled in one area living in bark lodges in the forests, harvesting wild rice, and making maple sugar. Invasions by the French in the 1640s and ensuing battles with their own Indian enemies forced many Nakota and Lakota to move westward. They developed distinctive Plains cultures. The Lakota acquired horses, introduced to North America by the Spanish in the 17th century, and by the 18th century were nomadic buffalo hunters.


Dacotah Encampment

Seth Eastman
Dacotah Encampment
Watercolor
Courtesy W. Duncan and Nivin MacMillan and the Afton Historical Society Press


Detail of beadwork from the Woman's Dress

Detail of beadwork from the Woman's Dress


By the mid-19th century, Euro-American settlers had overrun the sacred lands of the Lakota, and white hunters had decimated the buffalo herds on which the Plains Indians, the varied people who lived between the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains, depended. Eventually the United States government confined the Plains Indians to designated lands called reservations. Although reservations deprived them of their traditional way of life, the Lakota struggled to preserve many of their cultural traditions.

Quilling and Beading
QUILLWORK was the primary art form of traditional Lakota women. They decorated clothing and other surfaces with GEOMETRIC designs elaborately embroidered with dyed porcupine or bird quills. When colorful glass beads became readily available from Euro-American traders, they began to replace quills in embroidered ornamentation. Beads were easier to acquire, easier to use, and came in a wide variety of bright colors. Beadworkers strung several beads onto a thread and then stitched them down at intervals to create colorful and often SYMBOLIC patterns. The enforced restriction on travel and economic hardships of reservation life spurred a golden age in Lakota beadwork, especially as beaded objects became valued items in the tourist market.

Turtle
Lakota dance dresses are traditionally decorated with a beaded yoke that incorporates the turtle-by-the-shore-of-the-lake design. Because of her role in the creation story of the Lakota, the turtle is a sacred animal. The Lakota associate women with the sacred turtle because of their gift of creating human life. Lakota women aspired to be like the turtle - resilient and long-lived. Turtle MOTIFS (moe-TEEFS) were beaded on women's dresses, leggings, and bags and on cradle boards and protective umbilical amulets for baby girls.1

Woman's Dress
This was the "best dress" of a Lakota woman, worn for dancing or for special occasions.2 When a woman danced in this dress, the beaded yoke sparkled in the sunlight, the fringe swung up and down, and the bells jingled.

Rollover the image to locate details from the Woman's Dress

Narrow white strip represents the lakeshore Blue-and-gold design may represent a morning star Broad blue area punctuated by symmetrical designs represents the sky's reflection in the waters of the lake Checkered designs may suggest mountains or hills Multicolored U-shaped design represents the sacred turtle Bells

The beaded designs on the yoke have spiritual power and significance. At the lower center of the yoke, resting directly over the wearer's heart, is a multicolored U-shaped design representing the sacred turtle. The narrow white strip across the width of the yoke is the lakeshore. The blue-and-gold design in the white strip above the turtle may represent a morning star, and the checkered designs around it may suggest mountains or hills. Above the white strip, the broad blue area punctuated by SYMMETRICAL designs represents the sky's reflection in the waters of the lake, the home of the sacred turtle.3 While the meaning of most of these designs is no longer known, designs in this part of a Lakota dress traditionally referred to spiritual beings who lived in the sky and on the lakeshore. By the early 20th century, when this dress was made, Lakota artists often used such designs for aesthetic or visual effect alone.

1 These amulets were used to hold the baby's umbilical cord and provide good luck in many tribes. Boys received amulets in the shape of lizards (the symbol of long life and wisdom) while girls' amulets were shaped like turtles. Some tribes tied the amulet onto the baby's cradleboard, where it served as the child's first toy. In other cultures, the child's mother wore the amulet. Return to Text
2 A woman tanned, cut and sewed the hides used to make this dress. Return to Text
3 Father Peter J. Powell, D. D., "Beauty for New Life: An Introduction to Cheyenne and Lakota Sacred Art," in Evan M. Maurer, The Native American Heritage: A Survey of North American Indian Art (Chicago: The Art Institute of Chicago, 1977), p.45. Return to Text

Key Ideas Story Background Discussion Questions
 
 

 

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