IDENTITY BY DESIGN

Edited By Emil Her Many Horses

IDENTITY BY DESIGN: Tradition, Change, And Celebration In Native Women’s Dresses showcases the collection of Native American dresses held by the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian. This book presents a fascinating array of Native women’s clothing from the Plains, Plateau and Great Basin regions of the United States and Canada, dating from the 1830s to the present. It includes dresses, shawls, moccasins, belts, bags and hair accessories. Striking photographs depict Native life, Native women and their attire. The beautiful creations in this book reveal the artistic vision of many individual makers, as well as different regional styles and tribal designs.

“When you wear your dress, you’re carrying the spirit of all the people who gave you the lessons of life, who made dresses before you,” says Keri Jhane Myers. “Through ceremony, a young woman can become a living representative of revered spirit beings, such as Changing Woman of the Apache, and White Buffalo Calf Woman of the Lakota, who were known to have brought the arts, sacred corn, beauty, compassion, healing, truth and ethics to the people through teachings and rituals.”

$20.00