Sioux Knife Sheath

Sioux Knife Sheath, Yanktonai Dakota, 1870-1871

The knife that belonged to this elaborate sheath was most likely used as a tool rather than a weapon. Yanktonai used many such tools throughout the lengthy process of dressing game and treating animal hides. Yanktonai woman were known for their skilled beadwork, expressed through the embroidery of everyday objects crucial to the survival of their people. The Yanktonai of the western Dakota Territory were especially fond of the “lazy stitch” method of applying colorful seed beads to their goods in order to create a flexible ribbed effect. Different colors represented different meanings as did the symbols created through the patterns; crosses may have been representations of stars, and stepped pyramids could have been either tipis, mountains, or even the symbol for mother earth.