"PAINTINGS: “From Her Heart Thru Her Hands…“ SERIES

“SIOUX BEADING”

A young Oglala girl stands in her Trade Cloth robes and is wearing earrings and a necklace made of Dentalium shells. She is dated to some photographs dating around 1900.

You will notice that MCC has chosen to dress her in the colors of the U.S.A. flag  ... www.warpaths2peacepipes.com/native-american-symbols/color-meanings-symbolism.htm

The older robes displayed around her were made of two buffalo hides and beaded.  All of the moccasins within this painting represent those that also were made no later than 1880 by members of the Lakota, Oglala and Santee Sioux. 

The older traditional women's robes have blue beadwork around the neck opening and shoulders. The color blue represents the waters of the earth as each time a woman put on the robe her head would remind her of the emergence of her People from the Underworld into the air and warmth of the sun.

When the buffalo was hunted into near extinction and disappeared from the plains, the Sioux women began to make clothing using trade material. Trade with the NW Coast Nations provided Dentalium shells that were strung into beautiful earrings and breastplate necklaces. These shells resemble thin tubes of bone.

Please refer to these Google sites for more information:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Sioux_Reservation

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/446630488017430189/     (Sioux beaded dresses 1880)

and especially this one written by a contemporary Oglala

www.indianz.com/News/2014/12/23/ivan-star-sharing-lakota-persp.asp

"sioux beading"

24"H x 20" W

Mixed Medium: acrylic paints, inks & craypas pastels, on Bristol Board

Photo by SkyLark Images