Girl Dress Sioux From The Great Plains

Northern Great Plains

Sioux (Lakota or Dakota), circa 1885–1905
Deer hide, glass beads, red woolen cloth, deer dewclaws, elk teeth, rawhide.

Dimensions
Height: 80 cm
Width at shoulder and sleeve: 70 cm

This remarkable girl’s dress is a valuable testament to the sartorial art of the Great Plains peoples in the late 19th century. Made from finely tanned deer hide, it has retained all its suppleness as well as its original long fringes.

The wide upper yoke is adorned with twenty-six deer antler capsules (dew claws), each individually secured with a thin rawhide cord. Beneath this section runs an elegant herringbone band made of blue and white glass beads, the pattern of which continues seamlessly onto the sleeves.

The yoke is complemented by twenty elk teeth, while an additional tooth hangs from the end of each sleeve. The upper band of red woolen cloth provides the chromatic contrast characteristic of Great Plains productions from this period.

Based on its dimensions, this garment is unambiguously a dress intended for a young girl. Authentic children’s clothing from the Great Plains is today significantly rarer than that intended for adults.

The ensemble displays remarkable aesthetic coherence. The finesse of the beading, the balance of proportions, the quality of the hide, and the richness of the materials used all attest to a garment of prestige.

The use of deer dew claws, particularly striking on this dress, is especially noteworthy. Well documented in the clothing traditions of the Great Plains peoples, this ornament also produced a sound effect during movement and ceremonies. The particularly harmonious composition of this piece gives it a unique character.

Comparative Study

The proposed attribution is based on a comparative study conducted using several of the most important public collections dedicated to Native American arts.

The general characteristics of this dress have been compared to examples held at the National Museum of the American Indian (Smithsonian Institution), whose collections are now among the world’s leading references for the study of Indigenous cultures in North America.

The observations were also compared with the collections of the British Museum, which houses several historical garments from the peoples of the Great Plains.

Finally, the use of deer dew claws is perfectly illustrated by several garments held at the Buffalo Bill Center of the West, a major institution dedicated to the history and cultures of the American West.

While the use of dew claws is well documented in museum collections, their combination on a child’s garment—along with such a balanced beaded design, elk canines, and a remarkable state of preservation—remains a much rarer occurrence.

Provenance

Former Bernard Souteyrand Collection (1943–2025).

Assembled over more than forty years of research, this collection is renowned for the quality of its objects dedicated to the Native American peoples of the Great Plains.

Price

22,000 €

P.S.: The third photograph shows the dress as it would be worn.