Sioux Camp

Bodmer’s pictures of life in the villages, such as this scene rendered near Fort Pierre, illustrate Native women’s leadership. The woman at the center prepares an animal hide, a labor-intensive process requiring strength and years of practice. She would likely use this piece of worked leather and many others for clothing and housing to protect her extended family, or tiospaye. Oceti Sakowin (Sioux) women were responsible for erecting lodges (tipis), large portable structures made of several buffalo hides sewn together. Bodmer symbolically aligned this woman’s body with the lodge’s hearth behind her, creating a radiant domestic scene. Indigenous women’s authority within their communities tended to puzzle White people, who often saw their labors as drudgery rather than empowerment.