Crow, Montana
AmericanDress, ca. 1880
Not on view
Wool cloth, glass beads, elk teeth and imitation elk teeth made from bone
Dimensions48 1/4 × 53 1/2 in. (122.6 × 135.9 cm)
Museum purchase from the Chandler/Pohrt Collection, 1985.36
Indian people quickly adopted woolen goods for use as clothing. Crow women made dresses from wool trade cloth and decorated them with great concentric arcs of “elk teeth” both front and back. An elk could provide only two teeth (the upper canines) suitable for this purpose. The Crow carved imitation elk teeth from bone, even adding a bit of pitch or dark stain to mimic the natural tartar. Navy blue stroud was the favorite material, but red and green wool were also used. This dress contains thirty-two elk teeth, the remainder being made of bone.
