Crow Indian Dolls: Connecting Lore, Legend and Landscape

BIRDIE REAL BIRD’S LARGE HANDS FLUTTER AS SHE GESTURES TOWARD A CROW INDIAN DOLL ABOUT 12 INCHES TALL. It’s hard to imagine them working buckskin with sinew thread and tiny beads for nearly 100 hours to create this art piece. Yet they’re graceful, expressive hands that transmit the enthusiasm she has for sharing her heritage with middle school children. Soon she’ll have them on their feet attempting the “Crow Hop” (none of the teens will exhibit her 54 year-old exuberance or agility). The doll is 10 years old, the first Birdie ever made. She’s dressed as Real Bird’s mother dressed, and the way Birdie appears today, her long braids caught up with a simple leather tie.

The artist runs her hands over the purple wool shawl that’s layered over a long-sleeved cotton calico dress, held in place by an elaborately beaded belt, the traditional garb worn by Crow tribeswomen at the turn of the 20th century. “I want to keep this alive,” she comments. “Crow women don’t dress this way any more.” Her calf-high moccasins are covered by rain boots, and look like athletic taping coupled with crocs. She removes the rubber covers, revealing stunning, handmade footwear. Then she resumes her lesson, showing the children beautiful beaded vests, cradleboards, moccasins and belts.

Real Bird (whose “real” name in Crow is First Many Times comes from a long line of beading craftswomen. “I learned to bead as a child and now it’s almost an addiction,” she confesses. “I need to do it every day.”

Tiny black beads have made their way onto the doll’s head, a departure from the traditional use of horse or human hair. Besides, says Birdie, “horse hair braids on a doll ruin the proportions.”

Doll maker Susan Stewart makes a point of using only human hair, occasionally
substituting buffalo hair for “man dolls.” Also Crow, she is the manager at Chief Plenty-Coups State Park and is fond of using antique beads from the 1920s for her dolls’ eyes, producing a glistening, life-like effect. Since her dolls sell for about $600 each, Stewart separates the “play dolls” from “those you might hang on the wall as an art piece.”