Dakota Women's Work

Book excerpt: 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. Colette Hyman traces the changes in the lives of Dakota women, starting before the arrival of whites and covering the fur trade years, 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 also 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.