Details and Tribal Variations of the Two Hide Dress

The Following Garments are a collection of Two Hide dresses gathered during my research over the past year. Proper attribution is given where available and collected as well as links to the original file location when noted. The information provided about the dresses was harvested at the time of collection, are not my words, and can not be verified as being completely accurate.

Please forgive any errors, this is just an attempt to educate and illuminate the dress and people who wore them.

As Always, click on the actual picture to see a (sometimes) larger and more detailed view.

Unknown Origin, probably Yakima

 Nez Perce

Blackfoot two-hide dress, ca. 1890: Canada. Hide, elk teeth, seed beads, trade beads, brass beads, pony beads, red and blue wool, sinew. Woman elders are respected as the keepers of vast amounts of knowledge. This dress—decorated with valuable materials that would have taken a long time to gather or receive as gifts—is an example of what a Blackfoot elder might have considered her finest dress.http://www.flickr.com/photos/nostri-imago/2893982490/in/photostream

Woman’s Dress, Plains, Prairie, and Plateau, ca. 1850, Nez Perce (Nimi’ipuu), Idaho, Oregon, or eastern Washington. Deer hide, sinew thread, pony beads, dentalium shells, and pigment L: 78 1/2 in. W: 53 in. Thaw Collection, Fenimore Art Museum, Cooperstown, N.Y. Photograph by John Bigelow Taylor. Object ID: T0096.
(Dallas Museum of Art)
http://www.artfixdaily.com/artwire/release/466-art-of-the-american-indians-the-thaw-collection-opens-at-the-dalla

 Nez Perce 1850

Nez Pierce dress Decorated with pound beads and Dentalium shells, collected by Reverend Spaulding.

The bottom of Nez Pierce dresses do not have wool
plugs. Please note the Spaulding dress is using size 8 black beads, but the white beads are definitely size 10.

  http://www.womenofthefurtrade.com/page9.html

Shoshone two-hide pattern dress with fully beaded yoke, ca. 1880: Colorado. Hide, seed beads, red wool, sinew; Shoshone belt, ca. 1910: Colorado.Canvas, seed beads, thread, leather tie; Shoshone moccasins and leggings, ca. 1890: Colorado. Hide, rawhide, seed beads, sinew. The Shoshone were considered intermediaries in the region’s elaborate intertribal trading network. As a result, they borrowed ideas from tribes with whom they had regular commerce, mainly those living on the Northern Plains. The fully beaded yoke on this Shoshone artist’s dress resembles a Sioux-style dress.http://www.flickr.com/photos/nostri-imago/2893986458/in/photostream

Sicangu Lakota (Sioux) two-hide pattern dress with fully beaded yoke, ca. 1870: South Dakota. Hide, seed beads, sinew. Between 1850 and 1870, Sioux artists began beading the background of the yoke with blue beads. The background represents a lake; the designs on the yoke may be reflections of the clouds in the sky or the Four Directions.http://www.flickr.com/photos/nostri-imago/2893141087/in/photostream

Sioux girl's two hide dress, ca. 1850: South Dakota. Deerhide, elk teeth, pony beads, red wool, sinew. This dress is decorated with 150 elk teeth. The number of teeth is a sign of the wealth of the artists family. Since only the eyeteeth of the elk (two per elk) are used on the dresses, the artist's male relatives may have been excellent hunters and/or traders.http://www.flickr.com/photos/nostri-imago/2893978778/in/photostream

Sioux two-hide dress (transitional style), ca. 1855(?): Probably South Dakota. Deerhide, pony beads, "hawk" brass bells, sinew. In the mid-1800's Sioux women began replacing the animal' tail on a two-hide dress with a beaded U-shaped design. With the greater availability of trade beads, artists could be more creative and experiment with new designs. Here, the crosses on the yolk may represent the Four Directions or the Morning Star.http://www.flickr.com/photos/nostri-imago/2893979288/in/photostream

Sioux two-hide pattern dress with fully beaded yoke, ca. 1865: Probably South Dakota, Deerhide, glass seed beads, tin cones, sinew. From the 1870's on yokes completely covered in beadwork became a trademark of dresses made by Sioux women. To get a larger decorative surface, women used three hides, but still followed a two-hide pattern.http://www.flickr.com/photos/nostri-imago/2893979500/in/photostream

 Sioux two-hide pattern dress with fully beaded yoke, ca. 1890: South Dakota. Hide, seed beads, sinew. Lakota women prefer beading with “lane stitch,” also called “lazy stitch,” which results in designs that resemble those made with porcupine quills. By stringing multiple seed beads on a needle before attaching the thread back down on the hide, this artist was able to cover a large area of the yoke faster than if she’d used quills.http://www.flickr.com/photos/nostri-imago/2893144035/in/photostream

 Yakima Dress

 Yakima Two Hide, click on picture for description

 Yakama two-hide dress, ca. 1860: Probably Washington, Deerhide, elk teeth, faceted "Russian" glass beads, glass seed beads, glass pony beads, red wool cloth, paint, sinew. The beaded fringe on the yoke is typiv\cal of the plateau-style dresses. The large blue-, green-, and gold-colored beads strung on the fringes are sometimes called "Russian" or "Siberian" beads. Russians traded them in North America, but they originated in Italy and Bohemia (noe part of the Czech Republic).http://www.flickr.com/photos/nostri-imago/2893138003/in/photostream

Yakama two-hide dress, ca. 1890: Washington. Hide, pony beads, faceted “Russian” glass beads, fire-polished glass beads, cut glass beads, seed beads, sinew; Yakama basket hat, ca. 1910: Washington. Plant materials, seed beads, thread; Yakama earrings, ca. 1910: Washington. Brass hoops, dentalium shells, red-painted rawhide; Yakama necklace, ca. 1930: Washington. Brass beads, leather. Extensive beadworkbeadwork, and even the fringe is beaded. This Yakama artist also chose to incorporate beads from many different time periods.http://www.flickr.com/photos/nostri-imago/2893145863/in/photostream

Yakama two-hide dress,ca. 1890: Washington. Hide, pony beads, brass beads, shell beads, sinew. Pony beads did not go out of style once newer beads were introduced. Today, artists of the Plateau, like members of the Yakama Nation, continue to use pony beads to define their tribal style.http://www.flickr.com/photos/nostri-imago/2893984606/in/photostream

Crow Elk Tusk/Tooth Two Hide Dress

http://www.flickr.com/photos/nostri-imago/2893146093/in/photostream

Two-hide dress, latest year 1900
buckskin, pigment, cotton cloth, deer fur, beads, beading, dyeing
Object Height/Width: 123 x 120 cm width at sleeves
Object Height/Width: 48 3/8 x 47 1/4 in width at sleeves
Source unknown

http://empweb.nhm.ku.edu/eMuseumPlus?service=ExternalInterface&module=collection&objectId=34111&viewType=detailView

Piegan (Blackfoot) two-hide dress, ca. 1850: Canada. Hide, pony beads, blue and red wool, sinew; Blackfoot belt, ca. 1890: Canada. Harness leather, brass tacks, hide; Blood (Blackfoot) moccasins, ca. 1880: Canada. Hide, seed beads, cloth, rawhide, canvas, sinew, thread. Piegan and other Northern Plains artists are noted for their emphasis on the natural beauty of the hides. The beadwork on the yoke focuses the eye on where the tail would be, and triangular trade-cloth patches represent the heads of the animals whose hides form the dress.http://www.flickr.com/photos/nostri-imago/2893146665/

What Native American Women Wore - Pre Contact: The Two Hide Plains Dress

Catlin Photo Arikara Woman

The Two Hide Dress was a recent invention in terms of Native American History, Clark Wissler, Author of the "Anthropological Papers of the American Museum of Natural History, Vol. XVll, Part ll 1915" made an extensive study of the evolution of the everyday wear of Pre Contact Aboriginal peoples of this continent. It's creation dates back more than three hundred years, so it's not exactly the latest fashion but is an important part of Native American History! If you want to read this very important work you can download the PDF Here.

According to his studies, the Plains dress came about once tribes moved from East to out West and began hunting buffalo, this provided them with a relatively affluent lifestyle in which they had more time to make and prepare more tailored clothing, also the windswept arid climate of the Plains required more of a covering than the "Over the Shoulder" one hide short dress or the rather brief leather strap dress worn for comfort while maneuvering through the dense woods of the East. It's an interesting theory that bears our attention and inquiry.

Two hide dress from the Cody Museum.This may be the most important dress I can show! Work dresses were not decorated, and they were the ones worn everyday by Indian women. The other dresses, with all their fancy decorations, were for special occasions. Any well off woman would have owned their everyday dress and one ceremonial or special occasion dress.

Photo & Info Source:

http://www.womenofthefurtrade.com/

The dress was made by joining two Deer, Sheep or Elk hides, head down. The hide was tanned by the use of Brain Tanning, which gave the leather a soft washable texture, much like a heavy chamois. The very top edge of the animal, (The hind quarters), was carefully tanned to preserve the deer tail and a strip of fur along its edge.

The hide was either sewn with the flesh side, (Inside out), out and the top edge was folded outward and tacked down to create a decorative colar edge or the hide side was left out on the main body and the folded over portion cut off and re attached so both hair sides faced out depending on the tribe and how special the garment was.

As much of the hide that was practical was left attached and the shape and form of the hide preserved paid homage to the animal that supplied it.

It was sewn at the sides with a running stitch or whip stitch using Sinew thread or tied shut with a few leather thongs at the sides. The armpits were generally left open for ventilation.

The bottom of the skirt sometimes had colorful inserts at the knee area, most think they were purely decorate, my opinion is that the used them to kneel on to keep the dress clean at first, then became a decorative item later on.

The sides bottoms were fringed to make the garment move more fluidly, make it cooler to wear and give it a more tailored look.

Special occasion dresses were ornamented with natural items such as Elk's teeth, Dentalian shells, natural copper and other found pieces as well as decorated with porcupine quill art.

Arikara two-hide dress, ca. 1840

If you look carefully at the photos you will note that the hind legs of the deer are left as intact as possible and draped over the arm, often the "deer toes" were left attached. At the bottom hem, you will see the neck of the deer in the center and the front legs make up the side seam of the dress, giving it its unique hemline.

The hides were often painted as the picture on the right shows, (Click on the photo for a larger, more detailed version).

Arikara two-hide dress, ca. 1840: North Dakota. Bighorn sheep hide, blue-green and red paint, sinew. Before the widespread introduction of the European trade materials in the early 1800's, most dresses were simply decorated using earth paints. 

Source for Photo and Info:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/nostri-imago/2893137533/in/photostream

Below are paintings by George Catlin scribed post contact, of course, but Plains Tribes were still wearing traditional favorites even in the 1800's. Note the quill work...and the deer tails at the neckline.

Midday Sun by George Catlin

Mink by George Catlin

Mint by George Catlin (some beadwork)

Sweet-Scented Grass by George Catlin (with Painted Buffalo Robe)!

Wife of Two Crows by George Catlin

Fuzzy Fringe on the Two Hide Dress, How Was it Done?

Mink, George Catlin, showing fuzzy fringe edge at neckline and on edges of hide

Arikara Dress showing patches of fur along bottom edge as well as softened fringe

Take a close look at the edges of the hides used for the Two Hide dress, especially in the Arikara dress. (You can click on the picture and then zoom in on it further, I purposely left it larger to show detail).

Long fringe, twisted fringe and short fringe feathered sharp cut edge on far right

You will note that there seems to be a fringe of fur all around the edge. Well at least in some places. The hide around the fold over flap purposely has the hair left on, as well as the tail being left on as a focal point. But the edge of the entire dress is softened somehow, without being sharply fringed.

George Catlin's paintings also illustrate the fuzzy edge in places, (like the neckline), that would be cut out of the inner and not on the edge of the hide. Where did the fuzz come from? Couldn't Catlin paint fringe? I think he could. His paintings are so detailed you can see the individual beads and porcupine quills.

So what's going on here? I think they deliberately frayed the edges. It would soften the look and make the edges more pliable and improve the drape.

Close up, sorry about focus entire edge of fringe and cut edge brushed

Sharp cut edge on left, rest feathered.

On that line of thought, I took a scrap piece of my brain tan and made some experiments.

I cut long fringe, long twisted fringe and short fringe. I then took a wire brush and lightly teased the edges. These pictures are my results.

I got a bit carried away, but as you can see, the brushing greatly improved the softness of the edge of the hide, note the hard sharp cut edge to the far right of the first picture and the left edge of the bottom picture.

Did they use wire brushes? Probably not. Wire making was in its infancy at this time and was very expensive.

Did they have a tool that could create the same result? Thinking of porcupine brushes and other stiff bristled objects they had, maybe so.

The best looking fuzzy edge was made by making 1/4 inch cuts to the flesh side of the leather with my rotary cutter, (yes, I am aware they did not have one of those either, but so be it), Then I lightly teased the flesh side, flipped it over and teased the front. The results are the center(second) picture, look on the top edge of the hide in the center of the picture, slightly to the right. It gave a fine result, and the leather became oh so much more pliable.

Further testing has supplied the following results:

1/4 inch fringe cut from flesh side on top 1/2 inch fringe on bottom

I then scrunched it, twisted it, balled it up to see what wear would do

1/4 inch fringe on a curve, also roughed up afterwards

As you can see, it has produced the desired effect, and has considerably loosen up the edge. I just lightly teased the edge, I think the same results could be obtained using an ordinary finger brush, (albeit a little more elbow grease required). I cut less than 1/16 inch wide fringe, and a better look came from using the rotary cutter on the flesh side.

If you are interested in the process and have an opinion or suggestion, I would sure like to hear from you on this. Please leave a comment, I value your input.

A note aside, if you try this method, fluff outside. It creates a tremendous amount of fuzz in the air and on clothing.