Dark red velvet bandolier bag with intricate beaded floral design and yarn tassels. Circa 1890.

For details, view this bag in our collections database.

Beaded leather knife sheath with tinkle cone decoration made in North Dakota around 1900.

For details, view this knife sheath in our collections database.

Sleeveless velvet jingle dress made by Mary Bigwind of the White Earth Indian Reservation in northwestern Minnesota for her granddaughter, Madeline Boswell. Boswell wore the dress while dancing at pow-wows when she was a teenager in the mid-1930s. The dress is decorated at the neckline, waistline, and double hem with jingle cones made from tin snuff cans; beads; and satin ribbons trimmed with sequins.

For details, view the dress in our online collections database.

Buckskin trousers made in a style common to Dakota Indians with beadwork embroidery and outer leg seams trimmed with fringe.  Made in the late nineteenth century (between 1877 and 1899) by a Mrs. Galpin of Fort Yates, North Dakota.

For details, view the trousers in our online collections catalog.

To explore more examples of Dakota material culture, visit Oceti Ŝakowiŋ – The Seven Council Fires.

Doll with accompanying cradleboard and infant made by Dakota Indians circa 1880. The adult doll has a sawdust-stuffed cotton body and painted facial features.  She wears a fringed buckskin dress with a beaded bodice and hem. Hair is attached to the head; beaded hide moccasins are sewn to the feet. The cradleboard and the infant doll it holds are both trimmed with beadwork and red stroud cloth.

For details, view the doll in our online collections database.

To view more examples of Dakota material culture, visit Ochethi Šakowiŋ – The Seven Council Fires.

Dakota man’s painted hide shirt overlaid with beaded shoulder bands, sleeve bands, and triangular neckline bibs, all edged with white ermine pelts and both natural and dyed horsehair.  The lower shirt edge features a row of metal sequins and attached painted leather fringe.  The sleeves have hook and eye closures at each side.  Made in the 1870s.

For details, view the shirt in our online collections database.

To view more examples of Dakota material culture, visit Ochethi Šakowiŋ – The Seven Council Fires.

Cradle board made by Josephine Norcross of the White Earth Band of Chippewa.  The wool-wrapped, lace-up front is decorated with glass seed beads arranged in a  floral design. Also attached are a red yarn-covered dream catcher and leather tump strap.  Made not later than 1932.

Ojibwe velvet dance costume shirt probably made for Kay-zhe-baush-kung (Otto Bismark) of Walker, Minnesota in 1920 and later purchased by Neal Barnard at the Leech Lake Indian Reservation.  It features both Ojibwe-style and Dakota-style beadwork lazy-stitched in two eight centimeter-wide bands that extend from the front of the shirt over each shoulder and down the back.  Each sleeve has a similar band extending the length of the sleeve to the cuff.  The cuffs are spot-stitched with a multicolor floral pattern on a white background and fringed with leather thongs covered with white beads.  Each thong terminates in a metal cone.  Either side of the front-slit neckline and center back has an applique of black velvet spot-stitched with floral beadwork.  All beadwork bands are outlined with flat metal disks, each sewn with a blue or red bead at the center.  A satin ribbon binds the edges of each band.  See also dance costume items 1984.156 and 1984.157.

For details, view the shirt in our online collections database.

Pair of leather moccasins made in the late nineteenth century.  The black velvet cuff and vamp are decorated with metal faceted and glass seed beads arranged in a floral motif. Predominant colors are clear, white, purples, yellows, oranges, blues, greens, and reds. The cuff and tongue are trimmed with a purple silk ribbon that serves as a tie closure.

For details, view the moccasins in our online collections database.

Beaded leather purse with metal frame. Exterior surfaces are spot-stitched and decorated with multicolored glass seed beads. Obverse and reverse feature bird motif with exaggerated red heart above a symmetrical floral spray motif. Interior lined with brown cotton fabric.  May have been made by Dakota Indians; collected by Bishop Henry Benjamin Whipple in the late nineteenth century.

For details, view the purse in our online collections database.