Southern Cheyenne Girl's Dress (Primary Title)
Girl's Three Hide Dress (Alternate Title)
Unknown (Artist)
In the mid-19th century, the Kiowa of the southern plains developed the three-hide dress pattern. Cheyenne and Arapaho women admired the style so much that they soon incorporated it into their own dressmaking. A three-hide dress is a skirt made from two hides and a poncholike top constructed from a third hide worn over or sewn to the skirt. During the warm summer months, the wearer could remove an unattached cape. The tin ornaments were originally chewing tobacco can lids, rolled into cones. Aside from their decorative purposes, these cones created a jingle noise as the wearer moved, and are even applied to dance dresses today by Native American women participating in the Jingle Dress Dance at powwows.
Arthur and Margaret Glasgow Endowment from the Estate of Roma S. Nooter
Image released via Creative Commons CC-BY-NC
Some object records are not complete and do not reflect VMFA's full and current knowledge. VMFA makes routine updates as records are reviewed and enhanced.