Unknown Maker, Santee

Dresses like this one, sewn from tradecloth and embellished with ribbons and a dentalium seashell cape, were particularly popular among Plains women and girls in the late 1800s. Found along the west coast of Canada and the US, dentalium, or tusk shells, were attained by Plains tribes through trade networks. Indigenous people use these shells in making garments, hair ornaments, necklaces, and earrings.

-SB

In precontact times before the 18th century, women of the big­game-hunting Dakota tribes wore dresses similar to this one in design, made out of two deer or elkskins seamed at the sides with a hole at the top for the head and the "legs" of the skin creating interesting "flags" at each side of the skirt. When tradecloth became available, the original form was kept, and dresses were sewn complete with "legs" in the new material. The dress is ornamented with Dentalium pretiosum shells traded from Puget Sound to South Dakota via established networks. The dress offers an interesting comparison to the Zuni pueblo clothing on the West wall of this gallery that were woven in rectangular shapes and draped; in this case and in the case of the Micmac hood, new materials came into play, but the traditional cut-and-sewn form of the clothing did not change.