HOKS’ICHANTKIYAPI: LAKOTA CHILD’S SHIRT & MOCS

ITEM: K.F.

MATERIAL: Smoked brain tanned Deerskin, Sinew, Glass seed beads, red wool stroud, fox braid, quilted lining (recycled)

SIZE: Shirt:15” L X 21” W

PERIOD: Last Quarter 19th century

ORIGIN: Lakota

Exquisite little shirt & moccasins (With fully beaded soles) embody the love a mother for her child.

A Hok’ichantkiyap, a beloved child, was given a Hunka ceremony, bestowing blessings and wisdom upon him, so that he would continue to fulfill the highest ideals of Lakota society. These children were so precious that not even their feet may touch the ground in the ceremony – thus the fully beaded moccasin soles.

This little shirt appears to have been made from a recycled cradle cover, possibly the very one he was placed in at birth. When he outgrew his cradle,it became his shirt. The re-purposing of objects was a common practice among the Plains peoples, adding an interesting ethnological element to the artifact.