Dress

Lakota/ Teton Sioux, Native American

Not on view

Vertical lanes of beadwork, in place of the typical horizontal configuration, give this dress its distinctive character. The U-shaped motif at the lower center represents Turtle, a symbol of power relating to women’s health. Like most bead workers in the mid-nineteenth century, this maker favored tiny glass Venetian seed beads over the larger pony beads popular in earlier periods. Today, women wear elaborately beaded dresses reminiscent of this one for the Women’s Traditional Dance, one of several categories in powwow competitions.

Dress, Tanned leather and glass beads, Lakota/ Teton Sioux, Native American

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Dress, Tanned leather and glass beads, Lakota/ Teton Sioux, Native American
Dress, Tanned leather and glass beads, Lakota/ Teton Sioux, Native American
Dress, Tanned leather and glass beads, Lakota/ Teton Sioux, Native American
Dress, Tanned leather and glass beads, Lakota/ Teton Sioux, Native American
Dress, Tanned leather and glass beads, Lakota/ Teton Sioux, Native American

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