Examines how the decorative work of Dakota women--and the changes in that work--embodies the culture, spirit, and history of the Dakota people. 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. Through it all, the work of Dakota women proclaims and retains Dakota identity: it is a testament to the endurance of Dakota traditions, to the survival of the Dakota in exile, and--most vividly--to the role of women in that survival.

Introduction: Women, work, and survival -- Work, art, and Dakota subsistence -- The fur trade and the Treaty of 1837 -- Gender and resistance -- Separate survival -- Dakota tradition at Santee and Flandreau -- Work, gender, and the Dakota church -- Epilogue: Indian renaissance and Dakota women's art.