Cheyenne Women's Ceremonial Dress (tsitsistas / Suhtai)

Great Plains, circa 1880–1900
Deer skin, glass beads, pigments, leather, and rolled iron cones.

An exceptional ceremonial dress for women attributed to the Cheyenne (Tsitsistas/Suhtai), notable for the quality of its craftsmanship, the balance of its composition, and its remarkable state of preservation.

Made of finely prepared deerskin, this dress follows the classic construction of prestigious late 19th-century Cheyenne women’s dresses: a wide shoulder yoke, an attached skirt, long side fringes, and beaded decoration arranged in a highly precise composition.

The shoulders are adorned with large panels of white, cobalt blue, light blue, black, and red glass microbeads. Beneath these panels hang long leather tassels tipped with blue beads.

The lower section is one of the dress’s most spectacular features. The two rectangular panels are entirely adorned with three rows of original rolled-iron cones, each individually mounted on small leather fasteners.

The hem is accented by an elegant festoon of reddish-brown dyed leather edged with beads, extended by a profuse fringe. The decoration is repeated on the reverse side, attesting to the ambitious nature of the design.

Given its dimensions (140 cm wide and 150 cm long), the quality of its leather, the excellence of its beading, the preservation of its original iron cones, and the harmony of its decoration, this dress ranks among the most remarkable Cheyenne creations of the late 19th century.

Provenance: Former Bernard Souteyrand Collection.

Comparative Study

Research conducted on this dress has revealed several stylistic similarities with Cheyenne women’s ceremonial dresses (Tsitsistas/Suhtai) held in public and private collections.

The overall structure—a wide shoulder yoke, attached skirt, long fringes, pendants under the shoulders, and lower panels with metal cones—corresponds very closely to the typology of late 19th-century Cheyenne dresses.

The most significant comparisons include, in particular:

• a Cheyenne women’s dress held in the collections of the National Park Service (Grand Teton National Park), featuring the same design principle of wide beaded bands on the shoulders and a comparable overall construction;
• a dress attributed to the Northern Tsitsistas/Suhtai (Cheyenne) held at the National Museum of the American Indian (Smithsonian Institution), illustrating the combined use of fur, glass beads, and metal cones;
• a Cheyenne girl’s dress presented by Skinner Auctions, whose overall design confirms several characteristic elements of this clothing tradition.

However, the example presented here stands out due to the exceptional richness of its decoration, the complete preservation of its original rolled iron cones, its decoration extending across both sides, and its very long fringes—all elements that make it a garment of particularly high prestige.

Comparative Bibliography

• Theodore Brasser, *Native American Clothing: An Illustrated History*.
• David W. Penney.
• John C. Ewers.
• National Museum of the American Indian.
• Grand Teton National Park.
• Donald Ellis Gallery.
• Skinner Auctions.