"Dolls and Toys of Native America"...a book I helped out with in the mid '90s......
Arapaho beaded hide doll pictured in this book on Dolls and Toys....
From our own collection....Benjamin Ottogary's "Fancy Dancer with Bustle" Shoshone beaded hide doll, and his late mother Cecelia Ottogary's "Mother with Cradleboard and Papoose" Doll....
Cecelia Ottogary Shoshone Smoked and Beaded hide "Shawl" and "Buffalo Dancer" dolls we bought from Cecelia in the early '90s.....
Traditional Navajo velvet doll as shown in the book.....
My velvet Navajo doll Wes bought me back in 1971 on a trip to Yellowstone, the year I graduated from high school...I named her "Yatahey" (Hello greeting in Navajo)....our daughters Phyllis and Liz played with her for many years after they were born, as you can see from the wear....
The tale of "Soyoko" as depicted in the book....
"Soyoko" and "Chaveyo" Hopi Ogre Kachina dolls we purchased from Lawrence Namoki in the 1970's while he lived in Brigham City, about fifty miles north of Salt Lake City....
Early miniature cradle boards for holding dolls shown in the book.....
Nez Perce' beaded bucksin doll cradleboard made by Barbara Schneider and gifted to us in the '90s.....
Small Cochiti child's drum we purchased from well known drum maker "Cochiti Ray" many years agao......
Maria Priscilla "Percy" Romero's Cochiti Frog Storyteller used in the book....
Our dear friend Maria Priscilla "Percy" Romero from Cochiti Pueblo made us this frog in the late 1970's....She is recognized in books on Storytellers for creating the first "Frog Storytellers"....
Percy's pottery Storyteller bears...she gifted me with the bear on the right many years ago, and it is signed "To Jill, Percy"
Page from book showing the Inuit carvings given to children....
Older Walrus tusk Ivory Inuit Polar Bear I purchased at an estate sale a few years back....
From the late 1970's up through 1999 I worked at a Native American art gallery in downtown Salt Lake City...I was there for twenty-two years, with four of those years overlapping with our Indian Summer website, which we started in 1996. During those many years at the gallery, I had wonderful opportunities to deal directly with the Native Americans who brought their wares in on a daily basis. Our Salt Lake City location was only four hours away from the Navajo Reservation to the south, and about three hours away from the Shoshone/Bannock Reservation to the north. We also had the Goshiute Reservation about thirty miles to the west of us, and the Ute Reservation to the east of us. An ideal location for Native Americans from these various tribes (and numerous others...like Paiute and Pueblo Indians)to drop in with their artwork, as we were usually "buying". During this time I made many friendships with the artists, and my interest that I had in Native American art before working at the gallery soared as I was right in the thick of it. I was very familiar with southwestern artwork, as my father and his family were all from New Mexico and I grew up surrounded by pueblo pottery, and turquoise jewelry. In my teens, I developed a genuine love for the pueblo pottery as well as a fascination for the Hopi Kachina dolls. Over the years we attended many Hopi dances at the mesas where we would see the Kachinas (portrayed by the Hopi men.... all but one Kachina is portrayed by the male, even if it is a female deity) dance...the same dances they had been doing for hundreds of years. We would stand silently and watch as "Soyoko" the Ogre Woman would go door to door in the villages with her band of Ogres, and ask the children for the mice and snakes they had been asked to fetch for her to eat the week prior....if they had not done what they were instructed to do, the fear of Soyoko eating the children was always a possibility. These ceremonies and dances were to teach lessons and pass down traditions...much like the "Dolls and Toys" of Native America are meant to do. My Shoshone friend Laine Thom who is well known for his beadwork and knowledge surrounding the history of Plains Indians was working on several books in the 90's..."Becoming Brave"...."Dancing Colors" and "In the Spirit of Native America" were just a few of his titles. He was asked to do a book on Dolls and Toys, but was unfamiliar with the southwestern aspect of the project, so since he would visit me daily at the gallery and sit around and visit while he worked on his beadwork, he asked me if I would help with the book. The book titled "Dolls and Toys of Native America" explains the significance of the toys made for Indian children, and the roles these toys helped the child learn. The Shoshone beaded hide dolls and Navajo velvet dolls taught the young girls nurturing, they were also important objects that marked milestones during childhood and helped her along the path to womanhood. The small "doll" cradleboards prepared the young girls for motherhood...they could practice lacing the toy cradle and rocking her doll to sleep in it. The buckskin dolls also represented warriors and were given to young boys as well, so they could grow up to be great warriors. The Hopi Kachina dolls carved from the root of cottonwood trees were given to the children as early as infancy and hung in their cradles. The more elaborate forms were given to older children to teach them and prepare them for the roles they would play in their ceremonies as they got older and would impersonate the deities in their rituals. As I mentioned above, Soyoko, as scary as she was, taught the children that there is a consequence to everything....if they did not do as they were told, she would eat them as legend had it. The Pueblo pottery Storytellers came about in the 1960's, but soon became an important "toy" or object for a child to have...it taught the importance of handing down traditions, from the wise elders to the young. Drums were favorites with the children of various tribes, and the drums were an important part of most Native American cultures, used in all of their ceremonies. In a world of white, the Alaskan Inuit Indians carved small figures from walrus tusks and the children were given these carvings as toys, but also as learning tools for when they got older and might come face to face with a polar bear....All dolls and toys taught the Native American children the skills that would benefit them throughout their lives. In this modern day of video games, ipods, and more, I marvel when I look at some of the "dolls and toys" in our own collection, at their simplicity....yet they have played such a role in shaping the lives of so many Native Americans for many, many decades. I enjoyed working with Laine on this project, and there is a small "thank you" to me for my help at the back of the book. The Native American culture is so fascinating, all aspects of it....if you are interested in "Dolls and Toys of Native America", it is an interesting read, and something I was proud to be a small part of.
