Category: Enforced Sewing

Crow Nation Fundraising Doll, about 1905

A student in Lodge Grass, Montana made this traditional Crow doll to raise money for the local Baptist-run school. The Bureau of Indian Affairs oversaw hundreds of local and boarding schools for Native children, where the stated goal was to eradicate their culture and force assimilation. Making a few dolls was not onerous, but at boarding schools, Native girls were forced to sew clothes for themselves and the schools’ boys, and to mend clothing and linens. Such forced labor was only one of many abuses called out in a 1928 report. Although many schools closed in the following years, some continued to operate into the 1970s. 

Made by now unknown student. Lodge Grass, Montana. Leather, cotton, shell, glass beads. Gift of Gertrude Gardner Snyder 74.70

2: Frances Benjamin Johnston, “Carlisle Indian School, Carlisle, PA. Clothes Mending Class,” 1901. Library of Congress. 

3: “Baptist Mission Day School – Lodge Grass – Prize winning exhibit at Crow Agency Fair,” 1905-1925

An almost identical doll is on display in this booth representing the Baptist school at Lodge Grass, Montana. The photo was taken by the Rev. William A. Petzoldt, minister and head of the school, who took hundreds of photographs during his ministry but did not date them; this may date some years after the known fundraising effort. How long the dolls continued to be made is not known. McCracken Research Library, Buffalo Bill Center of the West.

Clothes Mending Class, Indian School, Carlisle PA, 1901

For most of the 1800s through the 1960s, tens of thousands of Native American children were taken from their homes and forced to attend boarding schools far from home (the better to cut ties with their culture). The stated purpose was to eradicate Native culture and compel assimilation. Abuse was rampant, and many children died.

“Industrial” classes included sewing and housekeeping (although Native Americans had centuries-old traditions of sewing within their own cultures). Sewing became forced labor, as girls had to mend sheets and sew clothing for themselves and the male students. 

Despite this history, many Native women then and now have embraced quilt making for creative expression, combining traditional motifs with Anglo-American quilt designs. Many also continue other needle crafts with ties to their own culture.

Frances Benjamin Johnston, photographer. “Carlisle Indian School, Carlisle, PA. Clothes Mending Class,” 1901. Library of Congress.  

Sampler, 1841

Who made this sampler? Makaulia and Makalio, two girls on an 1841 student list at the Wailuku Female Seminary, a missionary school on the island of Maui, are possibilities. The sampler is signed just “Maka.” Cross-stitched alphabets were hardly needed by indigenous Hawaiians who did not use sheets or wear American fashions. Instead, the sampler was a tool for teaching literacy (using the Hawaiian alphabet) and Anglo-American culture. 

It has not been possible to trace Maka after her school enrollment.

Made in Wailuku, Maui, Hawaii. Silk thread on cotton. Friends of the Museum Purchase 2017.11

Missionary’s Sewing Sample Book, early 1900s

Pearl Finney made this sewing sampler book in her sewing classes at the Chicago Training School for Home and Foreign Missions, part of preparation for teaching in a Methodist missionary school abroad. Seventy years after Maka of Maui made her sampler, sewing was still part of the mission school program. Also saved were pages with songs to be sung by students while they sewed. 

Paper, cotton, wool. Private Lender

Spinning and Sewing Report, February 16, 1793

Enslaved seamstresses Betty Davis, Charlotte, and Caroline produced nineteen shirts, four sheets, and a shift in six days of February at Mount Vernon—an output which suggests their skill and speed, but also that they were sewing a coarse, simple style of shirt for the enslaved. Finer shirts could take up to 25 hours to complete.

Courtesy of The Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association, gift of Mrs. DeCourcy W. Thom, 1944