Children in most Native American cultures have played with dolls. By manipulating miniature figures, children model the roles of adult men and women in their society. Girls especially learn how to care for infants and perfect skills such as sewing and beading as they make clothing and ornaments for their dolls. Some dolls, including the kachinas of the Hopi people of the Southwest, teach children the names and appearances of beneficent spirit beings.

   

   Dolls are universally appealing objects that can convey a great deal of information about Native American cultures. The diversity of dolls in this exhibition illustrates the multiple indigenous cultures of North America. On a basic level, differing environments dictate the materials from which dolls are made. For example, Iroquois farmers of the northeast used corn husks, Seminoles in the Florida Everglades constructed dolls from palmetto fibers, and Arctic peoples used whalebone and walrus ivory as well as various types of skins and furs.

 

   Dolls also reflect the diverse dress, hairstyles, and ornaments of the many Native American cultures. Doll outfits often illustrate a combination of traditonal

materials and those introduced through trade. Plains Indian dolls , for example, are dressed in buckskin garments richly decorated with glass trade beads, while Navajo dolls wear commercial velvet shirts or dresses with traditional turquoise ornaments. Although nowadays the daily dress of many Native people is similar to non-Indian clothing, the dolls typically preserve old-style garments, which may now be worn only for special occasions.Dolls also illustrate traditional childbearing practices. For examples, Inuit female dolls are often represented with the roomy, hooded garments that allowed mothers to keep their infants close to their warm bodies in the frigid Arctic environment. Other dolls are tucked into protective cradleboards of different regional styles.

 

   Nowadays, many Native Americans create dolls for sale to supplement the family income. Some contemporary dolls are designed as art objects that are more detailed than play dolls and are attached to bases for display. Nevertheless, such dolls continue to draw upon, and to preserve, cultural knowledge as well as traditional materials and skills.

 

Sponsored by: Neto Hatinakwe Onkwehowe and the Longyear Museum of Anthropology of Colgate University. Exhibit made possible with support from the New York Council on the Arts, New Era Cap and individual supporters.

 

Jan 3- March 7 2010

Karpeles Museum,

453 Porter Ave. Buffalo, NY 14201