Dakota Women's Work: Creativity, Culture, and Exile

Description:

A tiny pair of beaded deerskin moccasins, given to a baby in 1913, provides the starting point for this thoughtful examination of the work of Dakota women. Mary Eastman Faribault, born in Minnesota, made them almost four decades after the U.S.–Dakota War of 1862. This and other ornately decorated objects created by Dakota women—cradleboards, clothing, animal skin containers—served more than a utilitarian function. They tell the story of colonization, genocide, and survival. Author Colette Hyman traces the changes in the lives of Dakota women, starting before the arrival of whites and covering the fur trade, the years of treaties and shrinking lands, the brutal time of removal, starvation, and shattered families after 1862—and then the transition to reservation life, when missionaries and government agents worked to turn the Dakota into Christian farmers. The decorative work of Dakota women reflected all of this: native organic dyes and quillwork gave way to beading and needlework, items traditionally decorated for family gifts were produced to sell to tourists and white collectors, work on cradleboards and animal skin bags shifted to the ornamenting of hymnals and the creation of star quilts. Through it all, the work of Dakota women proclaims and retains Dakota identity: it is a testament to the endurance of Dakota traditions, to the survival of the Dakota in exile, and—most vividly—to the role of women in that survival. -- from back cover.

subjects: Indians of North America,  American Indian Industries,  Native American Industries,  American Indian Material Culture,  Native American Material Culture,  Sioux Indian Material Culture,  Dakota Indian Material Culture,  American Indian Art,  Native American Art,  Sioux Indian Art,  Dakota Indian Art,  Sioux Indians,  Dakota Indians,  Santee Sioux Indians,  Sioux Indian Quillwork,  Quillwork,  Sioux Indian Women,  Dakota Women,  Sioux Indian Women History,  Dakota Women History,  Sioux Indian Women Social Conditions,  Dakota Women Social Conditions,  Sioux Indian Women Economic Conditions,  Dakota Women Economic Conditions,  Sioux Indian Economic Conditions,  Dakota Indian Economic Conditions,  Sioux Indian Beadwork,  Dakota Beadwork,  Social conditions,  History,  Sioux Indian History,  Dakota History,  American Indian Social Life and Customs,  Native American Social Life and Customs,  Sioux Indian Social Life and Customs,  Fur Trade,  American Indian Treaties,  Native American Treaties,  Sioux Indian Wars,  U.S. Dakota War,  Reservation Life,  American Indian Tourist Art,  Native American Tourist Art,  Catholic Missions,  Star Quilts,  Women, social conditions,  Women, economic conditions,  Indians of north america, west (u.s.),  Indians of north america, industries,  Beadwork,  Leatherwork,  Women, history,  Industries,  Indian leatherwork,  Economic conditions

Places: Minnesota,  Nebraska,  South Dakota,  North Dakota,  Montana,  Manitoba,  Alberta,  Saskatchewan