Hide Strap Dress with Painted Motifs and Beading

Title

Identifier

1942.237

Description

Painted white hide shift dress with seed bead decorations at bottom of chest flap and between panels at hem. Painted motifs at waist, hip and hem consisting of horizontal lines, scallops and alternating triangles and rectangles. Leather thongs at shoulders instead of straps.

Date Created

1880, before

Source

Barren Ground Naskapi

Spatial Coverage

Shefferville, Labrador; Matimekosh Indian Reserve #3

Medium

Unsmoked caribou hide (note bug bite marks on hide), red, brown, bright blue and dark blue pigment, glass seed beads.

Provenance

Frank Speck collected mainly around Lac St-Jean (Mashteuiatsh; usually given as "Lake St. John" by Speck), St-Augustin (usually "St. Augustine" in Speck) and interior nomadic Naskapi, now settled at Matimekosh Reserve.

Coverage

54.80022, -66.83183 (N 54°48′01″ W 66°49′55″)

Item Name

dress

Geoname URL

https://www.geonames.org/5994847/labrador-schefferville.html

Collection

Denver Art Museum

Citation

“Hide Strap Dress with Painted Motifs and Beading,” Mapping Anishinaabe Regalia, accessed November 4, 2025, https://iris.siue.edu/anishinaaberegalia/items/show/66.