Craft a Pow-wow drum and mallet

The Kaya doll also has a 
similar jingle dress. It has a
pow-wow drum and mallet
to go with it.

        You can include the authentic Native American designs below on the top of your Kaya doll's ceremonial Pow-wow drum. Host drums at a pow-wow are responsible for singing the songs at the beginning and end of a pow-wow session, generally a starting song, the grand entry song, a flag song, and veterans or victory song to start the pow-wow, and a flag song, retreat song, and closing song to end the pow wow. Additionally, if a pow-wow has gourd dancing, the Southern Host Drum is often the drum that sings all the gourd songs, though another drum can perform them. The host drums are often called upon to sing special songs during the modern pow-wow.

        The Kaya American Girl Doll comes with both the traditional deer skin clothing and the modern ceremonial pow-wow clothing that many Native Americans girls only wear during special occasions. 

• The pink jingle dress with drum and mallet from 2014
• The turquoise pow-wow dress from 2011

Native Americans Share More Online:

• Beat Your Drum from glor Ennis
• Bele Bele - Bumbada women drumming groups Fanga
• Here is  Lakota Tribe Powwow drum circle
• From hand drum championship 2018

hand held pow-wow drums

Supply list for all 3 crafts:

• a recycled masking tape holder (cardboard tube)
• recycled salt boxes and oatmeal cans too!
• large lids, recycled for hand-held drums
• extra cardboard
• brown paper bag
• faux wood printed paper (optional)
• driftwood cuts from a dollar store
• white school glue
• masking tape
• natural colored string or twine
• permanent black ink pen
• design ideas (First Nation Symbol Figures) (animal symbolism)
• acrylic paints: browns and tans
• a cotton tip applicator (for mallet(s)
• gold or tan felt and matching thread
• toothpicks and wooden skewers
• Mod Podge
• hot glue and hot glue gun

Step-by-Step Instructions: hand-held drums

1. Cover a lid with brown paper and white glue. Let it dry.
2. Tape and glue a string 'web' weave design over the open end of the covered jar lid. see photos
3. Using a pencil, draw a decorative symbol from those shown below or from one of the many websites linked to on this post, onto the top of the paper covered lit. Retrace the design with a permanent black ink marker.
4. Modge Podge the surfaces to help keep these clean and durable.

Large, free-standing pow-wow drums and drumsticks

The drumsticks before covered with
brown paper and feathers.

Step-by-Step Instructions: free-standing, large Pow-wow drums

1. To make the larger Pow-wow drums, cut saltbox cans or oatmeal cans to your preferred size, I made two,  one of these 3 1/2 inches tall and another 2 inches tall. Leave on end on every drum you make covered with cardboard. These will be the shells of each drum. Face the covered ends up while crafting. The open ends will not be seen.
2. Cover these with masking tape, then white glue and brown paper. I covered the edges of these toy drums using woodgrain paper as well, but this step is completely optional. The paper covering represents the drumhead or skin, this is what native people stretched over the shell to strike with their drum sticks or beaters. The shell was made of stretched skins and these were stretched with sinew thongs, but you will use twine or string to represent these in this craft project.
3. Glue on natural looking twine, in a "X" shape pattern all around the edges of each drum. 
4. Finish the edges by using masking tape to cover the tips of the twine. 
5. Layer on a final finished looking application of clean brown paper across the top of the drums. 
6. I painted these tops with brown. Mod Podge the surfaces.
7. Hot glue on the driftwood supports to make the drums a bit taller and more finished, if you prefer. Native drums this large are usually kept from contacting the ground on a platform of some kind.

Step-by-Step Instructions for Beaters or Drumsticks

1. Making the beaters is easy! Cut skewers to the length you prefer.
2. Using white glue, wrap white cotton fluff around each end or one till it looks like a beater. 
3. Paint the surfaces of the beater as you like or cover these with brown paper. See photos above.
4. Glue on feathers for decoration.
5. Mod Podge every surface in the end.
6. An even easier way to make drumsticks is to paint Q-tips and then seal with Mod Podge! 

Read more about First Nations Symbolism pdf. and
Check out our collection of native symbolism here.

 

How to Pow-wow dance for kids.

Silver and Turquoise: A Story of Navajo Jewelry

Navajo bowguard.

       A Navajo native silversmith sat in the shade of a gnarled juniper tree, fashioning a bowguard for his son. He had bought silver and a fine piece of sky blue turquoise from the white man at the trader's store. For many days he had thought about the shape and design of the ''gato."

       With his chisel and awl the smith carved the design in a flat piece of sandstone. He took another flat piece and made a hole in the middle of it, and, after greasing the stones with some mutton fat, tied them firmly together.

       He melted the silver in an old tomato can over a hot fire of juniper charcoal and, grasping the edge of the can with a pair of tongs, slowly poured the liquid into the hole at the top of the mold. After several hours, when the metal had hardened, he carefully separated the two stones and lifted out the bowguard. The work was well done. Now he had only to file the rough edges and polish the silver to satiny smoothness with sand and ashes. With a tiny strip of silver he fastened the turquoise in the center of the bowguard. The father smiled. His son would be proud to wear such a fine gato when he went rabbit hunting on the desert. The boy would wear it on his left wrist, strapped on with a piece of leather, so that when he shot an arrow from his bow the bowstring would twang against the hard metal and not cut his arm.

       The man's own bowguard was worn thin from many years of use but it still gleamed against his brown skin. He had watched his father make it long ago, and he had learned how to use the tools and work the silver.

       He had made beautiful bracelets and rings and earrings for his wife and children and for himself, and little flat buttons to decorate the bright-colored velveteen shirts that they wore. He had also made belts with round flat pieces of silver, called ''conchas," fastened to them, and fine necklaces of hollow round beads with a crescent-shaped pendant, the ''naja," hanging from the bottom. Between the beads hung silver ornaments shaped like tiny flowers.

       He did not often cast the silver in molds as he had done in making the bowguard. Usually he hammered the soft metal into the shapes he wanted and carved or stamped designs on them. In some of the jewelry he set pieces of turquoise. Turquoise was a sacred stone and every Navajo wore a piece for protection from evil. Their ancestors had made necklaces and earrings and other ornaments from turquoise hundreds of years ago.

       The man's grandfather used to tell him stories of the time when the Navajos did not wear silver jewelry. That was before the year 1850 when Atsidi sani, ''The Old Smith,'' had learned how to forge iron and silver from a Mexican metalworker. After he had mastered the craft he had taught others.

       Many Mexican people lived in the southwestern United States at that time and the Navajos copied the silver ornaments that the Mexicans wore, the buttons and tiny ornaments shaped like pomegranate fruits worn on the outsides of the trouser legs, and the flashing bridles on the horses. The Navajos did not wear trousers, so they strung the buttons and pomegranate fruits on strings and wore them as necklaces.

       From their neighbors the Plains peoples, who lived on the grasslands farther east, the Navajos got bracelets and rings and belts made of silver, copper, or brass. The Plains Indians did not know how to make these things themselves, but got them from the American traders in exchange for furs. The white men knew that the natives liked these shiny ornaments, and in the big cities of the eastern United States there were metalworkers who made them especially for trade with them. At first the Navajo silversmiths copied the white man's jewelry, but soon they began to create their own shapes and designs.

       Besides being lovely ornaments the jewelry was useful as money. In fact, most of the early pieces were made from Mexican and American silver dollars, melted or hammered into the desired shapes. The traders would accept a ring or a bracelet in exchange for food. And if sometime later a Navajo wanted his ring back, he would bring a sheep or a fine blanket woven by his wife and exchange it for his piece of jewelry. Even nowadays the Navajos pawn their jewelry this way when they are poor and buy it back when they can afford to.  Hambleton 

• Who are the Navajo?
• See another the bow guard at the Nelson Atkins Museum and even another at Utah State University here
  

The Weaving of Native Americans

Vintage albumen print. Original caption "Aboriginal life among
 the Navajoe Indians. Near old Fort Defiance, N.M. / T. H."

         One of the chief arts of the North American Natives is that of weaving blankets. When the Spaniards came to our country they found beautiful blankets and fine weaving among the Pueblo and Navaho people of the southwest. Perhaps these people learned this art from their neighbors to the south; or they may have originated it themselves because they needed and sought something better than mere skins for clothing.

       In the early days, the Hopi Indians wove principally their own cotton to which they added some fibers of the yucca plants and animal hairs. When sheep were introduced by the Spaniards, they began to use a little wool. Their weaving is more complicated than that of other tribes. They not only produce a plain weave, but a checked one, and another which shows a repeated figure, usually a diamond.

       Among the Hopis it is the men who do most of the weaving of the blankets, shawls, sashes, and clothing. A lovely custom is still followed in weaving the bride's clothing. After the most important of the wedding ceremonies, the bridegroom's father distributes cotton to all his men relatives and friends. They spin and weave this cotton for the bride, working for several days or weeks. During that time, the bride stays with her husband and his family helping to cook and feed the weavers. Very carefully and beautifully the men weave a large white robe, a small white robe, and a wide, white belt with long fringe.

       When all are finished the bride wraps the small robe about herself, puts on white buck-skin boots and prepares to go to her mother's house where the young couple make their home for a while. She carries the large robe and belt in a rolled mat made of reeds bound together. After the wedding she uses the robes on ceremonial occasions and finally, the small one is wrapped around her body when death takes the little native woman to ''Maski,'' the Home of Hopi Souls.

       The indigenous people of the northwest coast seem to delight in color and movement. Perhaps their main thought is of the clan or family symbol which is expressed in totem poles, house fronts, house interiors, canoes, boxes and blankets. The Chilkats weave the most beautiful, fantastic blankets full of myths, and made in three colors: black, yellow, and greenish-blue. Although the women weave the blankets they are not supposed to be familiar with the designs and so copy them from patterns which have been drawn on boards by the men. The design contains the clan emblem and is usually of one or several animals so highly conventionalized that some natives themselves can hardly explain them.

       Not only the designs, but the materials used are different from those of other native blankets. The Chilkat woman takes the soft wool of the wild mountain goat and twists it around fibers of the inner bark of the cedar tree. These very strong threads of natural color are hung on the loom for the warp. The other threads, colored and containing no cedar fibers, are worked in and out of the strong warp threads. It takes about a year for a Chilkat woman to prepare the wool and weave one blanket, but it lasts for several generations.

       The weaving of Chilkat blankets is almost a thing of the past. The younger girls are not interested in spending so much time on robes whose ceremonial uses are almost forgotten. Only a very few old women are left who understand the art of weaving. Soon, even they will weave no more.

       Perhaps the best known of indigenous blankets are those made by the wandering Navahos. They practically live out-of-doors and the beauty of this is worked into their blankets. The women make these blankets, spinning the sheep's wool, dyeing it, and weaving it on hand looms. They often weave in crosses for good luck and symbols of the sun, moon, stars and lightning to bring the much needed rain.

       The colors worked into the blankets by the older Navahos were symbolic. They were considered sacred, ''gift of the best of their gods.'' Take for instance red - it means the blessed sunshine in which they move and live. No wonder these weavers love red and put the glorious warmth of it into their blankets. White stands for the early morning light which comes from the east and carries with it the hope of a new day. Blue stands for the cloudless afternoon sky in the south. The western sunset brings the yellows. Black comes from the far north where dark clouds gather and will, perhaps, bring the rain.

       Thus the Navaho woman of yesterday and today weaves her very life into her blankets. Often she sings the night chant as she works, ''With all around me beautiful, may I walk.''  Wood

• Weaving the path by Explore Canada
• Marie Begay Weaving
• Master Navajo Weavers: Barbara Teller Ornelas and Lynda Teller Pete
• Dream Weaver: Navajo designer Naiomi Glasses

A Pretty Doll Named Sally

         Sally is a pretty doll. She looks like a smartly dressed little school girl in her red pleated skirt, red beret and red and white sweater. She seems to be very fond of the antique native dolls that she has beside her.

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The School Children's Doll Exchange

 An indigenous doll from Alaska, hand carved. 

      A number of years ago a friend filled a box with pretty things that he thought Alaskan children would like. He sent it to a missionary school there. The children were filled with joy when the surprise box came.

       The teacher told the children she thought that they should write a thank you letter to their new friend.

       "Wouldn't you like to do this?" she asked.

       The children nodded. One little fellow, the smallest of all, kept nodding his head up and down, up and down, like a mechanical donkey. He wanted his teacher to know that he wanted to do whatever she wanted done. He kept this nodding up so long that the children noticed it and laughed.

        "See how he keeps his head going," one of the older children said. "It is silly, for he can't write."

       "I don't want to write. I am going to send a box of gifts," the little boy said stubbornly.

       The children shouted at this remark.

       The teacher raised her hand for silence.

       "That is a beautiful thought," she said. "We will send a box of gifts. We will put in fur bedroom slippers and a few of the small totem poles that the older boys have carved. And a doll. The nicest doll that we have." At this all of the heads began nodding again. And so it was decided.

       And this is the Eskimo doll that was put in the box. He is a very fine doll, handmade and his clothing is sewn from the furs worn by the people he represents.

       His outer garment is called a parka. The stitches in it are small enough to have been made by a professional Nome tailor.

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Native American paper dolls to color

       These paper dolls will stimulate the child's interest in native life from the past.  Encourage students to make up original stories about their playtime activities with the dolls.  The following page includes two standing figures, a mother and her son. Each paper doll has a change of clothes. The mother's second outfit includes a baby.

Print, color and cut out Native American dolls.

Innu Tea Dolls

Tea Doll from the British Museum,
photo by Ethan Doyle White

       Traditional Innu craft is demonstrated in the Innu tea doll. These children’s toys originally served a dual purpose for nomadic Innu tribes. When traveling vast distances over challenging terrain, the people left nothing behind. They believed that “Crow” would take it away. Everyone, including young children, helped to transport essential goods. Innu women made intricate dolls from caribou hides and scraps of cloth. They filled the dolls with tea and gave them to young girls to carry on long journeys. The girls could play with the dolls while also carrying important goods. Every able-bodied person carried something. Men generally carried the heavier bags and women would carry young children.

Links to Innu tea dolls:

• Miniature Innu Tea Dolls (Pair)
• tea doll with baby
• Innu baby tea doll
• Angela Andrew remembered for her crafting of traditional tea dolls
• Tea dolls in high demand
• The doll stuffed with tea leaves...
• Tea dolls are also known as packing dolls.

 Return to the Doll Guide Index Page

Sew a native ribbon skirt for your doll...

Our dolls model their ribbon skirts.

       Ribbon work is an applique technique for clothing and dance regalia among Prairie and Great Lakes Native American tribes. The ribbons are layered on top of each other with pieces cut out to create optically active designs from both positive and negative space. The ribbons' edges are sewn with needles and cotton thread, later, with nylon thread. Designs and colors may be significant to particular clans within the tribes. Specific patterns are passed from mother to daughters within families. Design elements can include floral designs, diamonds, stepped diamonds, crescents, hearts, circles, and double-curves.
       Silk ribbons, brought to North America by European traders, inspired a new, uniquely Native American art form. Mi'kmaq people created ribbon applique as early as 1611. In 1789 the regime of the French Revolution decreed that clothing should be plain, so silk ribbons fell out of fashion in France and were exported to North America. Those tribes who traded furs with the French are most known for their ribbon work, such as the Kickapoo, Mesquakie, Miami, Odawa, Ojibwa, Osage, Otoe-Missouria, Potawatomi, and Quapaw, but the practice has spread to many other tribes. Initially, layers of ribbons were sewn on the edges of cloth, replacing painted lines on hide clothing and blankets. By the close of the 18th century, Native seamstresses created much more intricate applique ribbon work designs.

Our doll, Rose, wears a modern version of a ribbon skirt. Ribbon skirts are gathered at the waist 
and trimmed at the bottom. The colors in her skirt remind us of the sunrise.

 

Make a ribbon skirt to match your doll's:

• Making a ribbon skirt with Tala Tootoosis
• Ribbon Skirt Tutorial by Emily Taylor
• The ribbon skirt that made political history
• How to make a simple ribbon skirt by DaVonna Bowker
• Ribbon Skirt Applique Tutorial with Billie Jo Kruger
• Making Regalia The Lost Episode: Applique Tie
• Heat & Bond Floral Applique
• The Deto and Kiihibaa show presents: Ribbon Skirts

        Today ribbon work can be seen on dance regalia at tribal ceremonies and powwows. Ribbon work is applied to both men's and women's clothing and is incorporated into leggings, skirts, blankets, shawls, breechclouts, purses, shirts, vests, pillows, and other cloth items.  

Our Josefina doll wear a ribbon skirt with colors of the sunset. Left, up-close look at the ribbon
designs and textures. Right, Josefina sitting among the wild strawberry.  

Toys, Games, and Dolls of Indigenous Children Remembered...

       Native boys and girls have always liked to play just as much as you do. Like most children, they were especially fond of games in which they imitated the work of their fathers and mothers.
       Many tribes secured most of their food by hunting wild animals. In the old days, little boys always had their own bows and arrows, made by their fathers or grandfathers. They were not allowed to have sharp arrows until they had learned to shoot straight, that they might not hurt other people. They often shot at marks, and spent much time hunting small animals.
       In Labrador some Naskapi Indians still live much as their ancestors did long ago. Most of their meat comes from the caribou, or wild reindeer. Naskapi boys cut and bend bits of wood to make toy caribou. When they play hunting, they shoot at these with small crossbows. This kind of bow is fastened on a crosspiece, the stock. In shooting, the bow is held level, with the arrow resting on the stock. Bows of this kind were formerly used by soldiers of Asia and Europe, and the Naskapi learned from Europeans to make and use them.
       Labrador is a cold country, with a great deal of snow in winter. The Naskapi use snowshoes, which were invented by natives, but contemporary Naskapi boys have learned to make and use skis as well.
       On the Northwest coast of North America lived the Tlingit, a tribe of indigenous people whose homes were wooden houses with wonderfully carved totem poles in front of them. In the long winter evenings, these natives danced elaborate dances, in which they act out wonderful old stories of animals, people, and gods. During the dance they dress in customary costumes and wear amazing carved and painted wooden masks as they dance. Tlingit children also had small carved and painted masks with which to play with long ago.
       The Hopi, who lived in pueblos in Arizona, also had dances for the spirits or gods in whom they believed in long ago, and wore special costumes and masks for their dances. Hopi fathers made, for their little girls, curious dolls that looked like the dancers with their masks. These were called katcina dolls, or tihus. Some doll artists still continue to carve katcina today.
       Native girls have always liked to play with dolls. Often these were merely pieces of wood wrapped in buckskin. Iroquois girls made fine dolls of folded corn husks. Dakota mothers often made beautiful dolls of soft buckskin stuffed with animal hair. These had arms and legs, bead or paint faces, and often real hair. Mothers and older sisters helped the girls to make dresses for their dolls, as well as cradles, toy clothes bags, and other tiny furnishings. Sometimes toy wigwams or tipis were made for doll houses.
       Many indigenous tops were made by the children themselves. Balls were of wood, or of carefully sewed buckskin stuffed with hair or scraps of hide. Boys of the plains tribes carved tops of wood and often used leather whips to spin them. A favorite game of that region was played with sticks of wood or bone, called "snow snakes which were thrown over smooth snow or ice to see how far they would slide. Boys fastened buffalo ribs together to make sleds. These became very smooth from much usage, and would slide swiftly down a snowy hill, or down a grassy slope in summer. Natives of nearly all tribes often amused themselves with a bone tied to the middle of a cord. A stick was fastened at each end of the cord and the cord twisted. Then by pulling the sticks, the bone was made to spin and buzz in the air.
       Indigenous children were taught by their parents to be gentle with each other, and always to play fair. Their games were nearly always out of doors, even in winter; so they had plenty of fresh air and sunshine, and learned not to mind the cold. If rain or snow spoiled their toys, they did not care, for they had the fun of making new ones. June Work, Guide-lecturer 

• Folk Toys from Encyclopedia of The Great Plains
• Native American toy doll and horse from Treasures from Our West
• Native American Dolls from The Smithsonian in your classroom pdf. lesson plans

Rhoda Holy Bear talks about her lovely dolls...

 Return to the Doll Guide Index Page

Contemporary Toys That Mirror Native Toy History:

• To Educate and Instruct: Early toys made influenced by First Nations
• dilly dally Canadiana Toys - animal journey learning shapes

Navajo Rag Dolls

Navajo dolls - rag dolls from the 1940s

        Navajo Dolls describe a style of clothing that Navajo women copied from east coast American society in the 1860s. Women of that era wore full dresses made out of satin. President Lincoln's wife and friends wore full dresses made of satin. Navajo women copied the patterns but substituted velvet for the satin and made buttons out of nickels and dimes. These stylish skirts are still fashionable today, for Navajos and non-Navajos alike.

       The dolls shown right, also wear simpler copies of Navajo jewelry. Their silver colored belts mimic their native silversmithing.  

       Atsidi Sani is considered to be the first Navajo silversmith. He learned silversmithing from a Mexican man called Nakai Tsosi, "Thin Mexican", around 1878 and began teaching other Navajos how to work with silver. By 1880, Navajo silversmiths were creating handmade jewelry including bracelets, tobacco flasks, necklaces and bracers. Later, they added silver earrings, buckles, bolos, hair ornaments, pins and squash blossom necklaces for tribal use, and to sell to tourists as a way to supplement their income.

       Tiny seed beed necklaces in turquoise colors mimic "squash blossom' jewelry. This necklace first appeared in the 1880s. The term "squash blossom" was apparently attached to the name of the Navajo necklace at an early date, although its bud-shaped beads are thought to derive from Spanish-Mexican pomegranate designs. 

• Navajo Dolls Owned by Sandra James
• Sample Navajo Rag Doll at J. Compton Gallery
• A Vintage Pair of Navajo Dolls in Traditional Dress

  Return to the Doll Guide Index Page 

"Amitola" a Seminole Doll by Precious Moments

Left, many layered beads about her neck and faux earrings adorn this doll.
Right, The Amitola doll wears a colorful horizontal striped poncho-style mantle about her shoulders.

       The name "Amitola" is the Native American name for rainbow and this doll is certainly dressed with all the colors of the rainbow. She wears the distinctive historical costume of the Seminole Tribe. Her head , forearms and lower calves plus shoes are all made from vinyl and her torso from stuffed plush. The shoes are tan, molded moccasins and her undergarments consist of tan colored pantaloons. Her facial features include the signature tear drop eyes painted on all Precious Moments dolls. Her nose is suggested in the dolls head design with a slight bump, her smile an incised arch and her ears pierced with faux-looking heishe beads. Her straight black hair style is rooted. She has no points of articulation because her was manufactured with a traditional rag doll body. But she can be easily posed with a stand or can sit on her own in a chair.

This dolls tag is also her certificate of authenticity.

       This Amitola doll is dressed in  Seminole patchwork, referred to by Seminole and Miccosukee women as Taweekaache (design in the Mikasuki language), is a patchwork style made from piecing colorful strips of fabric in horizontal bands. Seminole patchwork garments are often trimmed with a rickrack border. Early examples of this technique are known from photographs in the 1910s, and its use by Seminole women in garment construction began to flourish in the 1920s. Seminole patchwork has historically been an important source of income for many Seminole women, and today remains a source of cultural pride.

More About Seminole Traditional Dress:

• The History of Seminole Clothing and Its Multi-Colored Designs by Hilda J. Davis (PDF)
• Lessons on the Seminole Tribe of Florida
• Seminole Culture: Who We Are, Garments

Her tag reads: "American culture owes much of its richness to the contributions of Native Americans, from their traditions, arts, crafts, music, religion, and leadership. Precious Moments salutes the American Indian people. . . Amitola is a cherished part of our Precious Moments Native American Indians Doll Collection. She is a Limited Edition collectible doll, a creation of the finest quality and workmanship. This certificate of authenticity verifies that the doll is an exclusive Limited Edition. Only the finest materials have been used in the making of this doll. She is 6,429 out of 17,500 signature by Sam Butcher."

Left, full-length frontal view. Right, full-length back view of the doll.

More Reviews of Precious Moments Signature Dolls:

• Evergreen Art Dolls Unboxing Precious Moments
• Disney Precious Moments Dolls Collection by Linda Rick

  Return to the Doll Guide Index Page 

"Tasime" a Sioux North American Native Doll

Tasime doll's basket of corn, 1".

The text from the side Tasime's box reads:

Description of Tasime on the side of the box reads: "Attired in a traditional Sioux costume, Tisime (Ta-sh-ine), representing Native North Americans, is one in a series of collectible porcelain dolls from around the world.

      The Great Plains region of North America, which stretches from the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains and from Canada to Mexico, holds the history of the Sioux nation. During the 1600's and 1700's the Sioux established their roots in the vast grasslands.

       The daily activities of village life centered around providing food, clothing and shelter. Men hunted buffalo while the women grew crops, tanned hides and looked after the home. Leisure time was spent enjoying games such as shinning (a version of hockey). Children played with dolls and toys made by their parents. The Sioux have a fascinating past which helped to shape North American history."

Front and back of Tasime's costume.

•  Back to Avon introduction post

Seminole Cloth Dolls

Dressing a Seminole doll.

        Seminole cloth dolls reflect the elaborate, bright costumes of these people. Seminole women have always been admired for their creative designs and admirable sewing skills.

        The Seminole are a Native American people originally of Florida, who now reside primarily there and in Oklahoma. The Seminole nation emerged in a process of ethnogenesis out of groups of Native Americans, most significantly Creek from what is now Georgia and Alabama, who settled in Florida in the early 18th century. The word Seminole is a corruption of cimarrón, a Spanish term for “runaway” or “wild one”, historically used for certain Native American groups in Florida. The Seminole are closely related to the Miccosukee, who were recognized as a separate tribe in 1962.

Links to Seminole cloth dolls:

• Two Seminole Fiber and Cloth Dolls
• This pretty little lady is a Seminole palmetto fiber and cloth doll. She is part of the exhibits at Ah Tah Thi Ki Museum located on the Big Cypress Seminola Reservation in southern Florida, USA
• A Seminole doll made of palm fiber and cloth in the traditional style, on display at the Old State Capitol in Tallahassee.
• Seminole Doll at Auction

  Return to the Doll Guide Index Page 

Cradleboard Dolls or Comanche Deer Skin Dolls

cradleboard.

 Comanche deer skin dolls and cradleboards – The Camanche newborn was swaddled and remained with its mother in the tipi for a few days. The baby was placed in a cradleboard, and the mother went back to work. She could easily carry the cradleboard on her back, or prop it against a tree where the baby could watch her while she collected seeds or roots. Cradleboards consisted of a flat board to which a basket was attached. The latter was made from rawhide straps, or a leather sheath that laced up the front. With soft, dry moss as a diaper, the young one was safely tucked into the leather pocket. During cold weather, the baby was wrapped in blankets, and then placed in the cradleboard. The baby remained in the cradleboard for about ten months; then it was allowed to crawl around.

      Children learned from example, by observing and listening to their parents and others in the band. As soon as she was old enough to walk, a girl followed her mother about the camp and played at the daily tasks of cooking and making clothing. She was also very close to her mother’s sisters, who were called not aunt but pia, meaning mother. She was given a little deerskin doll, which she took with her everywhere. She learned to make all the clothing for the doll.

Deer skin dolls and cradleboards:

• A contemporary version of a “deer skin” doll
• Vintage Plains Native American Baby Papoose Cradle with Deer Skin and Beading
• Apsaalooke (Crow/Absaroke); Cradle, ca. 1880; native-tanned deer or bison hide, wood, glass beads, sinew, paint, thread. from the Hood Museum
• A contemporary Sioux art doll made with techniques similar to the ancestors
• River Trading Post often displays deer skin doll prototypes
• Cloth doll with buckskin face at the Wisconsin History Museum
• Artist Sharon Skolnick makes leather, beaded dolls

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Storyteller Dolls

The storyteller doll or Singing Mother.

        Storyteller Dolls are a clay figures made by the Pueblo people of New Mexico. The first contemporary storyteller doll was made by Helen Cordero of the Cochiti Pueblo in 1964 in honor of her grandfather who was a tribal storyteller. It is basically a figure of a storyteller, usually a man or a woman and its mouth is always open. It is surrounded by figures of children and other things, who represent those who are listening to the storyteller.

Links to Storyteller dolls:

• Southwest Pueblo Indian Storytellers and pottery
• Native American figurative clay sculpture is a rich collecting opportunity
• Pueblo Storyteller Pottery Dolls Exhibit
• The Storyteller Doll: Singing Symbols of Love and Union, Part 1
• Southwest Storytellers and Pottery
• Storyteller Dolls and Their Little Listeners

How Helen Cordero made stories come to life.

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The Corn Husk Doll

        A corn husk doll is a Native American doll made out of the dried leaves or "husk" of a corn cob. Maize, known in some countries as corn, is a large grain plant domesticated by indigenous peoples in Mesoamerica in prehistoric times. Every part of the ear of corn was used. Women braided the husks for rope and twine and coiled them into containers and mats. Shredded husks made good kindling and filling for pillows and mattresses. The corncobs served as bottle stoppers, scrubbing brushes, and fuel for smoking meat. Corn silk made hair for corn husk dolls. Corn husk dolls have been made by Northeastern Native Americans probably since the beginnings of corn agriculture more than a thousand years ago. Brittle dried cornhusks become soft if soaked in water and produce finished dolls sturdy enough for children's toys. Making corn husk dolls was adopted by early European settlers in the United States of America. Corn husk doll making is now practiced in the United States as a link to Native American culture and the arts and crafts of the settlers.  

 

Left, corn husk Holy Family: Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus. Center, details. Right, back.

       Corn husk dolls do not have faces, and there are a number of traditional explanations for this. One legend is that the Spirit of Corn, one of the Three Sisters, made a doll out of her husks to entertain children. The doll had a beautiful face, and began to spend less time with children and more time contemplating her own loveliness. As a result of her vanity, the doll's face was taken away.

• Corn Husk Character Dolls Craft
  

By Maker Moments: Cherokee Cornhusk Dolls

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Kachina Dolls

Kachina Dolls – A kachina (/kəˈtʃiːnə/; also katchina or katcina; Hopi: katsina /kətˈsiːnə/, plural katsinim /kətˈsiːnɨm/) is a spirit being in western Pueblo cosmology and religious practices. Kachina dolls are modeled after kachina dancers, masked members of the tribe who dress up as kachinas for religious ceremonies. These dolls are perhaps the most recognizable Native American doll types collected today. Katchinas are made by the western Pueblo, Native American cultures located in the southwestern United States.

Drawings from an 1894 anthropology book of dolls
(Tihus) representing kachinas, or spirits, made by the
native Pueblo people of the Southwestern US.
The dolls are made of carved cottonwood and
 traditionally given to children. The figures are
 identified on p. 74 of the source as representing
the kachinas: 37.Si-o-S(h)a-li-ko 38.Si-o-ka-tci-na
 39.Co-tuk-i-nun-wu 40.La-puk-ti 41.Do-mas-ka-tci-na
42.Tcuc-ku-ti 43.Si-o-sa-li-ko. Alterations
 to image: removed plate number.

 

       A kachina can represent anything in the natural world or cosmos, from a revered ancestor to an element, a location, a quality, a natural phenomenon, or a concept. There are more than 400 different kachinas in Hopi and Pueblo culture. The local pantheon of kachinas varies in each pueblo community; there may be kachinas for the sun, stars, thunderstorms, wind, corn, insects, and many other concepts. Kachinas are understood as having human like relationships; they may have uncles, sisters, and grandmothers, and may marry and have children. Although not worshipped, each is viewed as a powerful being who, if given veneration and respect, can use their particular power for human good, bringing rainfall, healing, fertility, or protection, for example.

      The most important of the kachinas are known as wuya. These are some of the wuyas: Ahöla, Ahöl Mana, Aholi, Ahul, Ahulani, Akush, Alosaka,Angak, Angwushahai-i,Angwusnasomtaka, Chaveyo, Chakwaina Chiwap, Chowilawu, Cimon Mana, Danik, Dawa (kachina), Eototo, Hahai-i  Wuhti, He-e-e, Hú, Huruing Wuhti, Kalavi, Kaletaka, Ketowa Bisena, Köchaf, Kököle, Kokopelli, Kokosori, Kokyang Wuhti, Kwasai Taka, Lemowa, Masau’u, Mastop, Maswik, Mong, Muyingwa, Nakiachop,Nataska, Ongchomo,Pachava Hú, Patung, Pohaha or Pahana, Saviki,Pöqangwhoya, Shalako Taka, ShalakoMana, Söhönasomtaka, Soyal,Tiwenu, Toho, Tokoch, Tsitot, Tukwinong, Tukwinong Mana, Tumas, Tumuala, Tungwup, Ursisimu, We-u-u, Wiharu, Wukokala, Wupa-ala, Wupamo, Wuyak-kuita,

Links to Kachina:

• Arts of the Americas: Kachina Doll (Chilchi)
• Kriss Family Collection
• Kachina Dolls by Walter Bernard Hund

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Ceremonial Colors Of The Navajos

        The five ceremonial colors of the Navajos are blue, white, yellow, black, and red. They are found in nearly all sandpaintings and sandpainting blankets. Red, which is used less often than the other colors, represents rainbows and sun rays. White symbolizes Early Dawn, yellow the Yellow Twilight, blue the Blue Twilight, and black the Darkness of the North. These colors are also associated with certain sacred things: red for the sun, white for white shell, yellow for abalone shell, black for cannel coal, and blue for turquoise.
       The turquoise is especially sacred to the Navajos because it is associated with the story of their origin. The Navajos say that their clans were created by Turquoise Woman after she became the bride of the Sun and went to live with him in the Western Ocean. He laid a rainbow across a sunbeam and took her through the sky to her new home. Turquoise Woman was lonesome there and so she created people, who became the founders of the various Navajo clans and tribes.
       There never was a time that the Navajos did not have white shells (clam shells), abalone shells, turquoise beads, and cannel coal, they say. These objects were used in all tribal ceremonies and were offered to the gods as sacrifices. They were brought up from the Underworld at the time of creation, Navajo legends tell us.
       The Navajos taught that after their people came to this world, they found turquoise and coal in the ground. When this tribe lived near the Big Waters of the West, they also had white shells and yellow abalone shells. After they moved to the desert country they traded the shells from Jemez, where they had been resettled by the early Spaniards from the western coast of Mexico. Today the Navajos obtain the shells through the wholesale market but they used to trade for these. They find the cannel coal on La Plata Mountain and elsewhere in their land.
       The Navajos get their turquoise in many ways. A mine at Los Cerillos, near Santa Fe, is one of the sources. Formerly the mine was worked by the Pueblos, who sold the turquoise to the Navajos. The mine was taken away from the Pueblos by the Spaniards long ago, but even today the Pueblos still are able to obtain turquoise there in some way and they still find a ready market for it among the Navajos.
       Near the Los Cerillos mine there is a hot-spring geyser, called by the Navajos "Bead Spring." When the Navajos visit Bead Spring, they drop small chips of turquoise into it and then pray to their gods. The natives of the past believed that this would bring good luck in their trading.
       The making of silver and turquoise jewelry provided the Navajos with a good income in the past. Formerly the stones were used unmounted for religious purposes. The silversmith's art had its beginnings around the middle of the nineteenth century when the natives began to learn how to work metal from the Mexican silversmiths who lived along the upper Rio Grande valley. Their first sources of silver probably were Mexican pesos and United States silver coins but they now use bar silver. Some of the young Navajo people today still work in silver and make many beautiful pieces of jewelry in which they also set turquoise stones. Caldwell.

The meaning of the color turquoise from 

Museum of Indian Arts and Culture.

The Navajos Since The Coming of The Spaniards

        The Navajos once had been a powerful people. Then the Spaniards came to the Navajo country and their coming marked the beginning of a period of trouble for the Indians. The Navajos, their numbers reduced by warfare with the Spaniards, retreated westward to Canyon de Chelly (pronounced "canyon de sha") in Arizona, which was so hard to reach that the Indians felt safe there. When the tribe, protected by the canyon from enemies, had become larger and stronger, the Navajos returned to their former lands. In the course of time they grew to be a powerful people once more. 

       But the Navajos again were threatened with destruction when they came into contact with the advance of the westward-moving pioneer settlers. For several years the natives fought bitterly against the pioneers and against the United States Government. Colonel Kit Carson, one of the toughest fighters in the West, was sent by the Government to subdue the Navajos. War and disease took many lives and at last the tribe accepted a treaty. 

       Under the terms of the treaty, most of the Navajos were removed to eastern New Mexico, where they were held in captivity for four years. They were fed by the Government, but they did not know how to use the strange foods. Some of the food made them sick because they prepared it in the wrong way or because it had spoiled. Then to make things worse, the corn crop failed for several seasons. The indigenous people weakened by not having enough food to eat, fell easy prey to disease and many of them died. 

       Finally a new treaty was drawn up. The Navajos were sent back to their own part of the country, where rations, blankets, a yoke of oxen, and a plow were given to each family and, in addition, two sheep to each adult and each child. After the Navajos returned to their home, they became healthy again. The tribe increased in numbers until by 1942 there were about fifty thousand Navajos living in the Southwest. 

       The Navajos took good care of the sheep that the Government had given them and built up large flocks until sheep raising came to be one of their main occupations. But after years of continued use, the land began to show the effects of overgrazing. Agents of the United States Government knew that this overgrazing eventually would wear out the land so that enough sheep could not be raised to support the constantly growing Navajo population. For this reason they urged the Navajos to reduce the size of their flocks. 

       To make up for the decreased number of sheep on the range, the Government has tried to help the Navajos to raise an improved type of sheep that would give the Navajos a greater annual income from the sale of mutton and wool than they had received from their former huge flocks of native sheep. Approximately one-fourth of the total annual production of wool on the Reservation was woven by the Navahos into blankets and rugs. by Roberta Caldwell.

• Read more about the Navajo today
• The Navajo housing crises  
• The History of Uranium Mining and the Navajo People
• For The Navajo Nation, Uranium Mining's Deadly Legacy Lingers
  
• A female-led energy company is bringing green power to the Navajo Nation and pdf. about Navajo Generation Station and Clean-Energy Alternatives