Lakota Women's Arts: Quillwork and Beadwork

For it is the mothers, not the warriors, who create a people and guide their destiny.
--Luther Standing Bear, Land of the Spotted Eagle

Much has been written about Lakota Sioux Indian men and their arts, especially those made in support of their hunting and warrior culture. Historically, however, very little scholarship has addressed Lakota women and their art forms. This lack of attention is still true today, even though the Lakota Sioux are the best-known of the Plains Indian tribal nations and their traditional regalia is widely recognized. These are the people of Chiefs Crazy Horse, Red Cloud, and Sitting Bull and of the infamous Battles of the Little Big Horn and Wounded Knee. In Lakota Women's Arts, Marsha C. Bol gives recognition to the significant contributions made by Lakota women--particularly through their quillwork and beadwork embroidery--in supporting and maintaining the foundational values of traditional Lakota society. The author explores the underlying motivations that have impelled Lakota women to practice these arts over many centuries, with particular focus on the decades since 1820. To explicate the values expressed in these artforms, Bol gives primacy to first-person voices from members of the Lakota Nation, past and present.
In addition to presenting an astonishing array of historic and contemporary Lakota art made by both women and men, this lavishly illustrated volume will provide today's Lakota artists unprecedented access to historical examples of quill- and beadwork that are tucked away in museums and private collections. As Rosalie Little Thunder notes, "Lakota people must have the chance to see these historic Lakota] things as a way of knowing where they've been so that they would know where to go."