Collections: Arts of the Americas

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Object of the Month: June 2010: Yakama Dress

Susan Kennedy Zeller on June 1, 2010

As I look at this amazing Yakama Dress I can’t help but wonder about the woman who made it. It was not exactly like she ran out to the store for a length of fabric and a pre-made pattern; she had to start from scratch! The dress is all handmade, beginning with cleaning and softening the hide and bleaching it to pure whiteness.

Yakama (Native American). Woman's Beaded Dress, late 19th century. Buckskin, glass beads, metal coins, 46 x 45 1/2 in. (116.8 x 115.6 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Museum Collection Fund, 46.181. Creative Commons-BY-NC

You can see the care in which it is made and the artist’s attention to detail by looking closely at her choice of beads. Each bead is chosen for its specific color in the design, and then sewn on - not an easy task pushing the needle through hide. The Yacama woman’s choice of danglers to use on the bodice makes me think about my own collecting habits. Perhaps the Chinese coins were treasured heirlooms. Or perhaps the pieces came from other dresses now worn out or given to her from a family member.

We know that this Yakama dress was part of the collection of designer Louis Comfort Tiffany (1848-1933) and exhibited in a special Native American gallery in Tiffany’s Long Island home, Laurelton Hall. He was an avid collector of Native American art and traveled to the Northwest area in 1910, 1911 and again in 1916 where he collected many Native American objects including baskets (also in the Museum’s collection) and this Yakama Dress. The dress came to the Museum in 1946 when the contents of Laurelton Hall came up for auction.

Today, the Yakama Nation with around 10,000 members is located on the Columbia Plateau in Washington State near the Columbia River. The women are still famous for their containers and headgear made in a traditional basketry style and their fine beadwork on clothing and horse gear.

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Crow Fair 2007: Morning Parade and Grand Entry

Nancy Rosoff on August 20, 2007

As we prepare for the Brooklyn Museum's tipi exhibition, I am in Billings, Montana attending the 2007 Crow Fair with my colleague Susan Kennedy Zeller. Here are a few images from the morning parade and the Grand Entry to the Powwow which took place on August 17, 2007.

Participants in the morning parade prepare for the procession.  Photo by Susan Kennedy Zeller.

Participants in morning parade moving through the Crow Fair campgrounds. Photo by Susan Kennedy Zeller.

The Grand Entry involving all particpating dancers who will be competing in the Powwows on Saturday and Sunday nights. Photo by Susan Kennedy Zeller.

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Tipi Exhibition Planning Meeting

Nancy Rosoff on August 9, 2007

In the popular imagination, the tipi has come to represent a common stereotype about how all Native American people used to live. In truth, however, it is a specific cultural expression of the Native peoples of the Great Plains region of North America: the primary means by which they organized their lives, families and communities. Today, Plains people live in modern homes, but the tipi remains an essential architectural form used by many for celebratory and ceremonial occasions. While the tipi has been featured in other exhibitions, the Brooklyn Museum exhibition, scheduled to open to the public in Fall 2009, will be unique because it takes the tipi as the point of departure to explore the numerous, complex sub-themes that place it at the center of Plains social, religious, and creative traditions.

On June 15, the first of two planning meetings was held at the Brooklyn Museum in order to determine the themes of the exhibition. A diverse group of ten consultants including scholars, tribal representatives and artists attended the meeting, along with the three exhibition curators (Nancy Rosoff, Susan Kennedy Zeller and Tim Ramsey), as well as other staff members.

Left to right sitting: Tim Ramsey (Southern Cheyenne-Choctaw), Teri Greeves (Kiowa), Christina Burke (Philbrook Museum), Derek Big Day (Crow), Heywood Big Day (Crow)

Left to right standing: Miranda Applebaum, Rima Ibrahim, Susan Kennedy Zeller, Don Moccasin (Rosebud Lakota Sioux), Barbara Hail (Haffenreffer Museum), Nancy Rosoff, Gerard Baker (Mandan-Hidatsa), Bently Spang (Northern Cheyenne), Dan Swan (Sam Noble Museum), and Mary Lou Big Day (Crow).

Consultants examine Plains objects from the Brooklyn Museum’s collection.

Tim Ramsey, Heywood Big Day and Gerard Baker examine the drawings on a tipi liner that was owned by the great Hunkpapa Sioux leader Rain-In-The-Face (ca. 1835-1905). Rain-In-The-Face was one of the Sioux leaders who fought and defeated General Custer at the Battle of Little Big Horn in 1876. A tipi liner is hung around the inner tipi wall as insulation and decoration. The drawings on this liner depict battle scenes and religious ceremonies. This liner has never been studied or published and a special consultation meeting with other experts will be held at the Museum on September 7.

All photos by Rebecca Greenberg

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