sinew-sewn on thick hide; beaded using colors of red white-heart, pea green, dark blue, medium blue, light blue, white, and faceted brass; edges detailed with sequins and red white-heart beads; hood tab embellished with hide fringe and cobalt basket beads, overall length 25 in.
fourth quarter 19th century


Exhibited: The Smith-Zimmerman Museum, Lake County, SD.

Baby carriers entirely covered with beadwork first made their appearance among Plains Indians beginning in the latter half of the nineteenth century. Beginning with the reservation period, when the arts burgeoned, man beadwork artists provided income for their families by making traditional objects for local use, and for sale to outsiders as well. Artists also turned out quantities of objects, as custom required gifts for making special occasions, such as the birth of a child.

Elaborate baby carriers epitomize the adulation that Indians lavished on children. It is told that years ago, on the birth of a child to a prominent Lakota family, more than two dozen richly adorned baby carriers were gifted to the newborn! An engaging story is also told of how this baby carrier came into the hands of George Mueller, the first non-Indian owner. In the early 1900s, Mueller served as a teacher in one-room schools in the White River Valley, which courses nearby Rosebud and Pine Ridge Reservations of South Dakota. During his sojourn, Mueller became friends with an elderly Lakota woman known to us only as "White River Woman". As a parting gift for George, when he left to take a job in Custer, South Dakota, White River Woman presented him with this splendid baby carrier that she had made for a grandchild "who never arrived".

In his seminal work, Decorative Art of the Sioux Indians, Clark Wissler published crucial information for understanding the motifs seen in Lakota beadwork. From his interviews with Lakota beadworkers he explains that the women referred to complex patterns like the one on this baby carrier as "looking glass patterns" or "reflected patterns". Over time, however, the designs largely lost any original symbolism embodied therein. Wissler concludes, "The motif with the Indian worker is taken as entirely decorative, i.e. the designs are wrought to please the eye." It remains unknown to us any intentional and personal significant that the White River Woman imbued into the beadwork on this baby carrier. Nonetheless, her evident mastery of her people's arts remains salient.

Benson L. Lanford
March 1, 2002

Collected from the Rosebud Reservation by George Mueller, the present owner's great uncle.