Culture

Although the material technology in use in Siouan communities today is Euro-Canadian, many of the aboriginal craft traditions survive with considerable vigour. Excellent beadwork in both floral and geometric designs is produced, much of it for dance costumes though many wear and use beaded items as part of their everyday attire. The ancient Siouan decorative motifs were geometric; older craftworkers still term the floral designs “Cree” or “Chippewa.” Some porcupine quillwork is also done, often commissioned for costumes. One woman elder at Wood Mountain recalled the wild plants that her grandmother had used for colouring quills but stated that the plants no longer grew in her locality. She stated an emphatic personal preference for one of the popular commercial fabric dyes. Siouan geometric designs have been incorporated into hooked rugs at Standing Buffalo, just as they had been utilized decades ago on the American reservations as motifs in embroidery designs on linen and cotton fabrics. Production of pottery seems to have been abandoned soon after metal utensils came into use as a result of trading contacts. Craft cooperatives that retail beadwork and items of worked hide have been organized in both Saskatchewan and Manitoba. Items produced for sale are often not the best specimens of Siouan technology.