Pouch

This case contains beadwork created by artists from the Lakota, Cheyenne, Arapaho, and Ute tribes. Before 1800, artists from these cultures primarily decorated leather garments, bags, and other objects with dyed quills. As trade with Euro-American settlers increased over the course of the nineteenth century, Native tribes in the Great Plains region purchased, bartered, and traded growing numbers of glass beads imported from Europe. Building on the aesthetics and symbolism of quillwork, Lakota, Cheyenne, and Arapaho artists developed complex beaded embroidery on a variety of leather goods. Beaded embroidery remains a vibrant artistic tradition in these cultures today. 

Paleontologist George Edward Lewis donated this collection of beadwork, along with an annotated map that records how and where he acquired the objects.