The object is the shirt of a Yanktonai Sioux Man. It matches leggings #50.67.3b-c. It is constructed of soft light tan pliable leather. The sides of the shirt are open and have leather thongs to lace them together. The lower edge of the shirt is cut into short rectangles like a fringe. The large triangular bibs frame the neck, one at the front of the shirt, and one at the back, and are decorated with red and black dots. The neck is decorated with dark blue cut glass beads spaced about 1 1/2 inches apart. The lower edges of the shirt, the sleeve cuffs, and the triangular neckpieces are decorated with diamond-shaped perforations in lines, triangles and face patterns. There is a porcupine quill medallion in the center of the chest at the bottom point of the triangle. It is made up of concentric rings of red, blue, yellow, brown, and white plaited quills. The seams of the shoulders and the sleeves are decorated with leather fringes and red and blue quills wrapped around hair bundles. Among some tribes it is believed that hair carries some of the characteristics of the person or animal from which it comes. Therefore, using hair in clothing may give the wearer additional strength, speed, or another positive attribute. Each sleeve is decorated on the underside with a series of seven black lines. The body of the shirt is also decorated with drawings of hunting scenes that include horses, a bison, and spears. Holes in the leather are backed with red stroud cloth. Stroud cloth is a coarse, close-weave wool textile that was imported from England and commonly used among Native Americans in garments and blankets. Red was the most frequently used color although navy and green were also produced and traded, and the colored selvedges were often prized as decorative elements. The shirt is in stable condition. There is old insect damage to the medallion quills. Many of the quills are faded. Also, some of the red stroud cloth patches have old insect damage. A leather tassel is torn along decorative perforations. See additional material in Jarvis report in Arts of Americas' files.

The high heeled tennis shoes, size 6, used for the base are made by shoe designer Steve Madden. Then the artist, Teri Greeves, hand sews all the beads and original design elements onto the canvas base. The design is inspired by the Great Lakes tribes’ designs, as Teri's husband, furniture designer, Dennis Esquival, is Anishinabe and she wanted to do something that reflects his region. Floral motifs, in complimentary colors are on the inside panel of each shoe with a coral, spiny oyster shell cabochon forming the center of each flower. The outside panels depict contemporary jingle dress dancers swaying to the throbbing drums and singing that accompanies these popular dances performed during powwows. During these dances each woman competes not only in dance performance but in over-all quality and beauty of their dance regalia. Before the 1830s the jingles on these dresses would have been made from porcupine quills but this material changed sometime in the mid-1800s to commercially traded tobacco can lids, rolled into cones. When prolifically sewn on to the dresses every movement would make them jingle. Each woman depicted on these shoes wears full regalia, inclusive of beaded dress, moccasins, and a belt with real silver conchos. This detailed beadwork melds traditional technique with modern day commerce into a lively, fun and remarkable sense of contemporary aesthetics. The shoes can stand alone as aesthetic sculptural works or as examples of creative change over time.

Decorated bags similar to this in size are sometimes referred to as "firebags" or "shot pouches" because they often held tobacco, flint and steel or a piece of touchwood for starting fires. This hide pouch combines elements of floral design and geometric patterns. Only one side of the pouch is decorated. The top of the pouch is quill embroidered with three simple foliate forms that contain alternating stems from which emerge bi-lobed leaves. The three plants grow from a crescent shape, a shape that may be read as a seed pod. Two quill woven strips that contain geometric forms are attached to the pouch. Both of these strips have white grounds with four major design elements on each, interspersed with small triangles and crosses. The top strip starts at the left with an eight-pointed star which is red at the center, then outlined in white on a brown field, outlined in turn in pink and the outer edge bordered in blue. The second element is also eight-pointed, as if a square and diamond are combined. At its center, a brown rectangle is surrounded by a larger rectangle of orange and red, then a white border, a blue border, then a pink border with projections at right and left, still another blue border, a white border, and finally, a brown border as the outer edge of the same form. The third element design is the same as the second and the fourth form is the same as the first. On the second, woven loomed quill strip, the first form on the left is an eight-pointed star with a brown and red checkered rectangle at center, surrounded by a white border on a blue field, surrounded in turn by a pink border, and then finally outlined in brown. The second form is irregular and may be described as a vertically oriented rectangle with a pronounced point emerging at right and left. At the center is a reddish strip, bordered and crossed horizontally in white, on a brown field that is surrounded by a blue border, then a pink border, a brown one, a white one, and then a final blue outline. The third element is the same as the second and the fourth is the same as the first. See supplemental Jarvis file in Arts of Americas' office.

This garter is loom woven probably without the use of a heddle. It has both the warp and weft made of thread with small seed beads. The beads are patterned with long lines of diamonds in black, yellow, and lavender. See other garters 50.67.37 a,b,c.shown in additional photogrpahs.

This Yakama dress was part of the Louis Comfort Tiffany art collection exhibited in a special Native American gallery in Laurelton Hall, his Long Island home. Tiffany was especially interested in collecting Native American baskets, totem poles, pottery, and dresses from peoples of the Plains and Northwest Coast regions. The elaborate bodice, although heavy, belies its bulk with the gracefulness of the shoulders and the wing forms for the sleeves. The curvature of the dress shape emphasizes the swaying of the fringe that would occur as the woman moved in the dress. Overall, the dress is in stable condition. The skin remains strong enough to support its beaded bodice. There were 6 bead-string breaks that were restrung onto cotton thread and stitched back into the dress by Conservation. The original vegetable fiber strings remain tucked away into the dress for research purposes. Special care is needed whenever handling this dress because of the fragility of the remaining vegetable fibers that hold the bead arrangements together.

Museum Expedition 1903, Museum Collection Fund

The front of the headdress has a beaded headband in blue and white. From under the headband, trailing down the back is dyed red horse hair. Two long horns (beef horns) are on either side. A roach of bird skin and feathers is fastened to center of horsehair trailer. Four bands of dyed feathers are attached to a red wool trailer faced with cotton fabric that hangs down the back of the headdress. According to Sean Standing Bear 10/24/2000) the small concentric beaded circles on either side of the headdress are 'eyeballs.'

Consultants agreed this shirt was probably Metis or Santee (Eastern Sioux) made in the late 1800s. Style derived from Red River Métis sometimes called Eastern Sioux or Crow. Beadwork has long, spidery look i.e. Crow design where the flower sets in. So may be a mix- Métis inspired Eastern Sioux or Crow. Collar was originally navy blue now faded. The shirt might have been made for army personnel, as this was a popular souvenir to acquire.

Wedding sarong (tapis). Two panels of hand spun, natural dyed cotton are stitched together with a long centre seam. The edge at one end has a folded hem, the other edge is finished with a basting stitch. Hand loomed cloth has stripes of red, brown and yellow with mirror work and embroidery embellishment.

Long beadwork panel worn down the back like a cape. Letter-like motifs of blue, green, pink, black and yellow beads are spaced horizontally on either side of a stylized house design in the centre of the white beaded background. Each short end is trimmed with a string of coloured beads, one long edge (top of letters) seems unfinished and uneven, and the other has a border of white and blue crochet-like beading dotted with single blue beads.