Dakota Women's Work: Creativity, Culture, and Exile
By: Colette A. Hyman.
Edition: First edition.
Publisher: Minnesota Historical Society Press
Published: April 1, 2012
Place of publication: St. Paul, MN
Language: eng
Format: Paperback
Number of pages: 240
ISBN-13: 9780873518505
Copyright date: 2012 by the Minnesota Historical Society
Subjects: Industries; Indian leatherwork; Dakota Indians; Quillwork; Dakota women; Economic conditions; Dakota beadwork; Social conditions; History
Description: A tiny pair of beaded deerskin moccasins, given to a baby in 1913, provides the starting point for this thoughtful examination of the work of Dakota women. Mary Eastman Faribault, born in Minnesota, made them almost four decades after the U.S.–Dakota War of 1862. This and other 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.

Author Colette Hyman traces the changes in the lives of Dakota women, starting before the arrival of whites and covering the fur trade, 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 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.

Through it all, the work of Dakota women proclaims and retains Dakota identity: it is a testament to the endurance of Dakota traditions, to the survival of the Dakota in exile, and—most vividly—to the role of women in that survival. -- from back cover.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: label: Introduction: Women, Work, and Survival
title: 3; label: Chapter 1
title: Work, Art, and Dakota Subsistence
pagenum: 17; label: Chapter 2
title: The Fur Trade and the Treaty of 1837
pagenum: 39; label: Chapter 3
title: Gender and Resistance
pagenum: 67; label: Chapter 4
title: Separate Survival
pagenum: 93; label: Chapter 5
title: Dakota Tradition at Santee and Flandreau
pagenum: 119; label: Chapter 6
title: Work, Gender, and the Dakota Church
pagenum: 143; label: Epilogue: Indian Renaissance and Dakota Women's Art
title: 171; label: Acknowledgments
title: 183; label: Notes
title: 189; label: Bibliography
title: 211; label: Index
title: 225; label: Illustration Credits
title: 239