Dakota Women's Work

GoodMinds.com Verified independent store

→

Dakota Women's Work: Creativity, Culture, and Exile is a 2012 release from the Minnesota Historical Society Press that deals with the history of Dakota women in Minnesota from the early 1800s to the United States-Dakota War of 1862. The book, written by Collette Hyman is part of its larger effort to discuss the war, and its aftermath, during the 150th anniversary of the war that pitted the Dakota against Europeans in the Minnesota River Valley. Hyman traces the changes in the lives of Dakota women, starting before the arrival of whites and covering the fur trade, the years of treaties and shrinking lands, the brutal time of removal, starvation, and shattered families after 1862 -- and then the transition to reservation life, when missionaries and government agents worked to turn the Dakota into Christian farmers. The decorative work of Dakota women reflected all of this: native organic dyes and quillwork gave way to beading and needlework, items traditionally decorated for family gifts were produced to sell to tourists and white collectors, work on cradleboards and animal skin bags shifted to the ornamenting of hymnals and the creation of star quilts. Show more