Pictographic Dresses: Picturing Brave Deeds
by Richard Pearce, author of Women and Ledger Art: Four Contemporary Women Artists, published by the University of Arizona Press.
In the 19th century, when Mandan and Lakota warriors returned home after a battle, the tribe would hold a War Honor Dance (also called Victory or Return from Kill Dance), where women would wear pictographic dresses painted with combat scenes to honor their husbands, brothers, or sons killed in battle. They would also wear these dresses on other ceremonial occasions. The battle scenes were traditionally painted by male artists for the woman dressmaker, since only men could create representative art, while women would create designs, sometimes resulting from visions, that would bring power to the wearer. As we will see though, during the reservation period at the turn of the century, this tradition began to change.
Pictographic Dress, Lakota (Teton Sioux), North or South Dakota
c. 1885, muslin, paint, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art
"Lakota, muslin dresses painted with battle scenes could be worn only be women who had lost relatives in war. This dress belonged to Silent Woman (Ini'laon'win), whose brother, Bobtail Bear, had been killed in battle with the Crow. Painted by a male relative, the individual scenes covering the front and back of the dress represent Bobtail Bear's military exploits and accomplishments. While each side forms and overall pictorial composition, the various episodes represent distinct events separated in time and place. Bobtail Bear's glyph, or name symbol, appears over many of the figures, thus identifying him in the actions portrayed. Other symbols--human hands (touching the enemy), human heads (slain enemies), pipes (war parties led by Bobtail Bear) and horse tracks (enemy horses taken)--represent additional honors.
Pictographic Dress, Hunkpapa Lakota, 1875-80
Buckskin, pigment, beads, tin cones 48 inches long x 44 wide. State Historical Society of North Dakota, L641 Provenance: Collected by David Taro at Standing Rock Reservation, North Dakota; owned by Pretty White Cow (niece of Sitting Bull)
"The beaded yoke of this dress has a U-shaped abstract design in its center that refers to the turtle, a female protective symbol commonly used on Lakota dresses. The lower section has hunting scenes drawn on front and back. The front features two women, one killing a buffalo and the other butchering a buffalo. The back shows two women, one on horseback killing a bear and the other on foot hunting an antelope. It is not known whether these are the exploits of Pretty White Cow or if she is the artist. Among many Plains tribes there were women referred to as 'manly hearted women, women who took on the responsibilities that traditionally were men's, such as hunting and warfare, as shown on this dress."
White Bear Woman and Red White Buffalo Dress Mandan (Numangaki), ca. 1884
Muslin, pigment 52 x 55 inches, American Museum of Natural History, 50.115352 . Collected by Gilbert Wilson, 1909, from Beaver, a Mandan woman (a member of Three Band) who was given the dress by White Bear Woman References: Wilson 190-12, pp.130-33.
This dress was made by White Bear Woman and painted by her husband, Red White Buffalo. It shows the exploits of the men in the wearer's family. When it was collected, it had been given to Beaver by its previous owner. The front of the dress records the exploits of White Bear Woman's brother, Lean Bear, and the back records the exploits of Red White Buffalo. The five wound marks refer to Lean Bear's battle injuries. One wound is drawn in a different shade of red, indicating that the bullet did not completely pass through the body.
In the two exploits in the top row on the front of the dress Lean Bear is mounted on a horse and chasing the enemy while under fire, indicated by the reverse horse tracks and the flash marks. In the bottom row he is counting coup on two enemy warriors. In the exploit shown on the left, Lean Bear is the second to count coup, as indicated by the line above the wounded enemy’s head. In the exploit on the right, the enemy has had coup twice before Lean Bear, indicated by two lines above him.
On the back of the dress, the top shows Red White Buffalo shot through both arms by the Lakota waiting to be rescued by a friend on horseback. On the bottom left is Red White Buffalo hitting a woman with hide lance. On the bottom right, Red White Buffalo counts coup on a man who has had been counted coup against him twice before.
Red White Buffalo’ exploits are also represented by the abstract design on the sleeve. The horse shoe marks around the sleeve indicates that Red White Buffalo has had a horse shot from beneath him. The rows of inverted horse shoes signifies horses captured. The vertical lines mean that he was a member of a war party, the horizontal lines that he was a leader of the party. Red White Buffalo thus led a total of three war parties and captured twelve horses but failed to capture three horses. The horizontal bar with the anthropomorphic figures indicate that Re White Buffalo was the leader of a war party and killed many enemies." (Evan M. Mauer, Visions of the People: A Pictorial History of Plains Indian Life 1992, p 250).
Pictographic Lakota Dress, ca. 1900. Native tanned deerskin, glass beads.
Hearst Museum of Anthropology, the University of California, Berkeley © PHOEBE A. HEARST MUSEUM OF ANTHROPOLOGY AND THE REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA.
"Among the Lakota, women whose relatives had been killed in battle had the privilege of wearing dresses depicting scenes of combat, depicting scenes of those warriors. At first the scenes were painted on hide and then on muslin, but with the growing popularity of beadwork at the turn of the century, Lakota women began to create beadwork renditions of these special dresses. In this example the traditional turtle-by-the-lake design is combined with the front of the image of a pair of warriors with eagle headdresses, beaded vests, and Strong Heart Society banners riding on red and white pintos. On the back of the yoke is another pair, with headdresses and coup sticks on yellow horses. The use of warrior images on reservation period dresses shows the continuing importance of this theme to Plains Indian women and their peer group communities" (Evan M. Mauer, Visions of the People: A Pictorial History of Plains Indian Life 1992, Evan M. Mauer, Ed, Visions of the People: A Pictorial History of Plains Indian Life, 1992, p. 223).
Pictographic Dress of Vanessa Paukieigope Jennings (Kiowa),
made by Peter Bowles, 2004, muslin and paint,
front and back.
In recent years pictographic dresses have been made for a variety of reasons. In 2004 Peter Bowles made this dress for Vanessa Jennngs. She wears it, she tells us, “at our Black Leggings Society ceremonials and other important Kiowa functions.” According to her husband, Carl, "though there is no Kiowa tradition of ledger art drawn on a muslin dress, we wanted to have one for Vanessa because . . . we needed a medium for her to claim her ancestors war deeds at the Scalp dances today. Peter Bowles did the work, and Vanessa has worn it for two years now. The scenes begin during the free days, WW I and WW II, all incidents in Vanessa's family.” Vanessa Jennings herself describes the scenes, which she numbered. (2006 message from Carl Jennings.)
Vanessa Jennings describes her dress [2]:
1. The hands represent the war deed of my great-great grandfather, Ghou-Lay-Ee, as he captured the red cape off of a Spanish Officer who was hired by Prince Maximilian in his quest to be the supreme ruler here in Mexico and smack dab in the middle
of Kiowa and Comanche country! Ironically, Ghou-Lay-Ee was a Spanish captive among the Kiowa. He did not have a drop of Kiowa blood but he became a respected and prominent war leader. The important Kiowa Black Leggings Warrior Society continue to honor this war deed today in 2006.
2. This vignette represents my great-grandfather, Charley Apekaum, fighting the Germans in the trenches of World War I. My grandfather, Stephen Mopope, was also a soldier but he was sent home to die from that horrible Spanish Influenza Epidemic.
3 & 4. This scene represents Po-Kei-Tay (the other name of Ghou-Lay-Ee) when he led a horse raiding party to Texas. They were caught by the Texas Rangers. It was the policy of all Rangers to shoot on site any INDIAN caught off the Indian Reservation . . . no exceptions and no excuses!!!! You can see the Ranger being roped and dragged. Hey, I just realized 3 & 4 represent this one story.
5. This represents the Warrior Society members who followed Po-Kei-Tay.
6. This represents how Ghou-Lay-Ee was captured from a Spaniard's wagon train on its way to Santa Fe, New Mexico.
7. This represents the earlier story of Ghou-Lay-Ee capturing the cape off the Spanish Officer.
8. This represents the story of a Sundancer that woke up my relative during a fight in WWII. He had dozed off while on sentry duty and this man called, "Nephew, it's dangerous for you to sleep. They (the German soldiers) are coming from over there."
9. This represents the Texas Rangers chasing Ghou-Lay-Ee (aka Po-Kei-Tay) after they have left the reservation to go on a Horse Raiding Party. The leader is responsible for the safety of all who have pledged to go on that raid. So, when they are chased by the Rangers, he (Ghou-Lay-Ee) ropes the head man for the Rangers and drags him in the direction AWAY from the Kiowas. This was how he received the name Po-Kei-Tay. That name now belongs to Gabriel Po-Kei-Tay Morgan, my oldest son. Gabe is the Assistant Superintendent at the Lame Deer Indian Agency in Lame Deer, Montana. (2006 message from Vanessa Jennings).
Pictographic Dress made by Mark Sykes and painted by Peter Bowles
for an exhibition called Warriors of the Plains in Leeds Museum's Lotharian Hall. Unbleached cotton, water color, and ink, 2011.
In 2011 Mark Sykes made this dress in basic Lakota style. Peter Bowles painted the images in water colors and ink for the outline. "I never portray anything," he tells us, "unless I am asked by someone who has the family history, so the images on this dress are from my imagination, based on my knowledge of warrior art and societies. When I paint, I don't think of anything in particular. This dress is a scene of Lakota and Cheyenne warriors attacking Crow, Aricara, and Pawnees." (2014 messages from Peter Bowles and Mark Sykes.)
Colleen Cutschall (Oglala Lakota), Muddy Waters Dress, muslin, acrylic, ribbon, sand. 2011.
Besides being a well-known artist, Colleen Cutschall is a retired Professor, Coordinator and Chair of Visual / Aboriginal Arts at Brandon University in Manitoba. Her “lineage goes back to the Crazy Horse and Black Elk tiospaye, or extended family.” These two historic figures, she tells us, have played prominent roles in her life “as well as of the whole life of the Oglala people” because of their concern for maintaining and perpetuating the traditions that provide their identity as a people (Richard Pearce, Women and Ledger Art: Four Native Women Artists, p. 75).
There is a saying that 'Misery loves company', but particularly during times of disasters, misery loves community. Communities comfort and assist each other against overwhelming natural calamities. In spite of personal loss of homes and property, people reach out to each other grateful for what they do have even if it is only the clothes on their back. The format of a small girls dress was chosen for that reason and to reflect a shared experience that is becoming all to regular world wide. Drenching rains and muddy water carry away lives, memories, dreams, and hopes. This dress honors all those evacuees and survivors who are unable to go home or perhaps never return.
The muslin reflects a time not so long ago when the prized buckskin dresses and shirts were made no more and only cheap fabrics in light cotton were available. The style is based in ledger drawings that were innovations on earlier hide painting styles but reflect a more contemporary situation where cars and trucks have replaced the horse and motor boats have replaced the canoes. What remains constant is the closeness of family and friends.
Plains clothing was often decorated with personal amulets imbued with protective powers. This dress too has its protective medicine in the form of small sandbags attached to the dress. While the dress echoes historical styles it is a contemporary adaption, a signal that can be suggestive of renewal. (2004 message from Colleen Cutschall)
War Mother, Teri Greeves (Kiowa)
Raw silk, canvas, wood, glass beads, wood beads (on staff and hair tie), pressed glass hairpipes, and semiprecious stone beads, 80" x 36" x 2".
We have been sending our young men to battle for generations. Not so long ago, these men were fighting the US cavalry in Texas and Oklahoma territory. Today our young men are a part of the US cavalry in Iraq and Afghanistan. And their grandpas were on the Rhine River in Germany and in the POW camps of Manpo, North Korea and in Binh Long Province in Viet Nam.
And what were their mothers, wives, sisters, aunts and cousins doing for them while they were so far from home? What are they still doing for those Kiowa men and women serving in the deserts of the Middle East? Exactly what they’ve been doing for all those generations before: praying and dancing for their safe return not only in the flesh but in spirit as well.
Wearing a Battle Dress that is unique to Kiowa War Mothers, holding a lance decorated with the colors of Iraq War service, remembering a grandfather who served in Viet Nam in the colors of her drop, painting her leggings with hatch marks indicating action seen, my War Mother prays in a timeless Victory Dance for her man’s safe return to our people.
Teri Greeves is a Kiowa Indian raised on the Shoshone and Northern Arapaho Wind River Reservation in Wyoming. As a little girl she would sit in her mother’s store and enjoy all of the intricately beaded objects that were on sale. At eight years old she began to bead. The women in her family and the other bead workers on the reservation taught her the traditional stitches and always
offered suggestions for improving her skills. Since then she has expanded this art form to include the native experiences of today with those of the past, staying true to traditional roots but also incorporating her modern perspective.
War Mother is wearing a pictographic dress. If you're in interested in picrograpichic dresses, see Storied Beads.
Bibliography
Densmore Francis, Teton Sioux Music, Smithsonian Institution, Bureau of Ethnology, Bulletin 61, Washington, D.C. 1918.
Wilson, Gilbert Livingstone, Gilbert L. and Frederick N. Wilson Papers. Minnesota Historical Society.
Lincoln, Louise, The Social Construction of Plains Indian Art, 1875-1915, Mauer.
Mauer, Evan M., Ed., Visions of the People: A Pictorial History of Plains Indian Life, Minneapolis Institute of Arts, 1992,
Pearce, Richard, Women and Leger Art: Four Contemporary Native American Artists, 2013.
For other websites by Richard Pearce see:
Storied Beads: The Art of Teri Greeves
Colleen Cutschall: Recovering the "New" World
Dolores Purdy's Ledger Art: Colors that Sing
For suggestions or information, please contact Richard Pearce