Woman's Elk Tooth Dress
date: label: Accession Date
content: 25 Dec 1893
name: label: Collector
content: Rev. Heinrich R. Voth
label: Donor Name
content: World's Columbian Exposition
notes: label: Notes
content: From card: "$50. Very fine buckskin dress, decorated with deciduous teeth of the elk."
label: Notes
content: George Levi, Max Bear, David Ramos, and Joyce Twins of the Cheyenne delegation from the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma made these comments during the Recovering Voices Community Research Visit November 3-6, 2015. The elk teeth are graduated from calf teeth to cow teeth, to some bull teeth. They are reinforced with a piece of metal. The tabs on the bottom of the dress are important to the history of Cheyenne dresses. David explained that today many people leave the tabs off, but it was how they used to touch each other during the ceremonial dances because they couldn't really 'touch' each other during the ceremony. The ladies would hold on to the tabs instead. Joyce believes the tabs are also mean to represent the legs of the elk, two at the top and two at the bottom. Max noted that the bottom has a water design and water represents life.
label: Record Last Modified
content: 24 Jan 2024
label: Specimen Count
content: 1
place: label: Place
content: Not Given, Cheyenne And Arapaho Reservation, Oklahoma, United States, North America
topic: label: Topic
content: Ethnology
culture: label: Culture
content: Cheyenne (Tsitsistas, Suhtai)
setName: label: See more items in
content: Anthropology
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: NMNH - Anthropology Dept.
identifier: label: Accession Number
content: 026674
label: USNM Number
content: E153048-0
objectType: label: Object Type
content: Dress