Tent of Many Voices: 08020605

my name is Carpenter I'm from monana I married to the co Tri about years now and I'm from River two Tri they call the now so and the cars are called but today we open our um we want to open up girl um sign language to um I want to thank you one of you for being here my company is MIL made fashion design and it's Native American owned and operated by myself and as I said I'm a member of the sh tribe South Dakota I foration for 25 years and I am the primary designer and manufacturer of original line coats and jackets I also do princess we and I also design men children and most of my design I wanted to kind and when I started I started this but I in my life like five years ago I sold all my life but my husband I was inspired by my husband Tommy and my children because I was just doing at home um then I started um creating the outfit I have a lot of hip hop fion that I displayed in other areas but today we're doing the traditional uh regalia attire we're doing two the old and then two of the modern but I want to say that I have faced great challenges and I have overcome these challenges with the Lord's help and the strength of Truth through friendships because it's times that when you know how it is when when you try to get ahead people try to talk about you or put you down or bring you down or whatever it is they try to do it and and a lot of people give up but it's because of the strength of my friendships that they've always come and encouraged me and know say go ahead keep it up keep going and most of all I give honor to the Lord because he's been my strength when I couldn't turn to anybody I turned to him so I would like to encourage everyone I don't see not too many Native Americans here but I always tell them to pursue their dream and their goals and so today I want to encourage who's ever everyone here all of you to pursue your dream and your goal I I've always said that you're never too old and you're never too young you can do it to go and Conquer that dream and that goal and I have and my daughter started a modeling agency she modeled for um she modeled when she was young but when she got older she um she went to New York she went to Florida she did lot of modeling job jobs there but as she got older then she got she still had modeling on her mind and she she has started the native dimes modeling showcase and there uh Native girls a pool of native girls that travel with us and travel with me and model the designs and the jackets and the coats and Rodeo Weare whatever it is we do it so today we have four of the girls with us some of them are new on board or we that have come with us but I want to thank all of you for allowing us to come and be a part of this memorable event so today I'd like to call uh Diane as she's going to do the Lord's Prayer father AR in heaven H be thy name thy kingom come th will be done on Earth as it is in heaven give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we forgive our de H and lead us not into temptation but Deliver Us from Evil for the is the kingom and the power and the glory forever amen i' like to call June up to come and um talk about the bug skin dress he here we have Diane she is wearing her buckin dress the buckin is made out of a hide a deer hide the hides are processed by the Indian people and they still do the uh hide still today the hide the Buckman dread here you see uh she has the uh Crow design as I stated earlier today that each tribe has their own designs and this here um dress bin dress is of the Crow tribe the moccasins are all fully beaded with matching leans and her Bell and her uh little pop she wears in the front now all the crow women you'll see them wearing this type of a uh beaded moccasins leing and a matching b b and pouch she also has along with her Buckman dress her Shaw and uh the shaw is uh handmade with a fringe each Fringe is put on one by one also her fan the fan is used it's usually a eagle feather and it's usually used uh when the woman dances with a traditional dress her braids her braids are are uh wrapped with Autumn all the women wear the Autumn uh with their buin dress and also the plume now she has a plume on her head and a lot of the uh traditional will wear two eagle feathers when they wear two eagle feathers this means the women are married so the guys stay away but if they have one eagle feather on their hair this means they're single you can look and go after them but this here is Diane and uh she is a crow young woman and she uh is wearing the back dress thank you thank you Diane our next model is um wearing the ALK tooth dress um elk tooth dress Crow um clothing Crow dress Pro crafts whatever culture um before the invasion of the silk or sequins and designer labels the highest fashion west of the Mississippi was the elk tooth dress there was no mistake mistaking the status of C women when her tribe signature gown a blue or in or blue or red trade cloth covered with about 500 elk can9 tee they wore these they wore their wealth on their sleeves because only two elk two teeth from an elk are suitable for each dress represented years of hunting and hard work and since um the the elk they eat grass and twigs but they have two teeth in their upper pallet made for tearing meat and that's the upper canines known as the ivories and since the the Stone Age these bulbs of ivory have caught the attention of hunters and they were different they po they were polished and they were smooth and some historians think that they were among the earliest forms of jewelry and Crow traditional cow Crow tradition once required successful Hunters to give away the ivories to members of their hunting party who didn't down an elk and when the man killed his first elk the ivies were saved for a necklace for his bride or for his daughter and although you usually only one although usually one for special occasions the Cowen contined to wear a Beed necklace with two special elk teeth and an elk are a very a valuable source of meat and clothing and um that's why the people they Place such a high value on these ivories and this one woman Elder woman was uh interviewed and she said it started way back before Columbus she said I don't know how far it went back but it was way back then and back then they used um elk hides are the the deer hides for their elk teeth but the white settlers they soon noticed the white nuggets of the bone and um prized by the crow by the Cheyenne by the Lota and other tribes across the high plains and during the market uh hunting ARA about a 100 years ago there were records of mass Slaughters of elk especially to collect the ivories and many of the teeth ended up in the watch of elk club members and Western jewelry featuring that teeth is very is increasingly popular collecting enough teeth for a dress would take a lifetime of hunting for an entire family so this garment is just not just the Garment that they wear but the dress is heavy and not unlike um just a thick wool but hundreds of elk te gently tap the fabric when the person is wearing the as a dress moves and inside the Garment it's um it's backed with a soft Calico and you know minutes after um a freshly killed elf was brought home women would begin working the hide and so they have to work it two three times to make it soft but today um we're very proud to have Allison a model the elk tooth and we got today we're showing two modern contemporary clothing our model Kelsey she's modeling the the modern uh jingle style and usually this um this jacket it's a dress and it's fully with all uh filled with um decorated with the jingles and um that's where June was talking about how they twirl and they SW swirl with real uh with the beat and they've got to be really um really talented to do this kind of so we thank Cy today for uh modeling the modern jingle dress and our next model is modeling um another the elk Booth but it's a jacket and and um again this jacket is made of the ivories that I talked about with the um the uh from the elk and the fur trade um wool available to the Native American tribes was early it was substituted for skins and making the garments at least when it could be afforded it also became a status symbol of wealth since anyone could have buckin back then when they had the trade CL the the uh natives they were considered wealthy and Mountaineers took pride in dressing their wives in the finest outfits available um in the um the fur trade um since the 18 hundreds in the early 1850s they wrote a description of a croww woman stating that the woman have scarlet and blue dresses others White catian made with dress skins of big horn sheep which were covered across the breast and back in rows of elk teeth and seashells the price of elk teeth is 100 is 100 for a good horse and in money the value of $50 the flock is not complete unless it has 300 teeth to 500 which with which other their shells and skins but could not be bought for less than 200 back then but today even this jacket is like almost $300 alone and that's just the jacket and this is just a part of what I do for the for um the modern traditional wear so I thank Abby today let's give her a hand and let's give the girls a hand for the great show that they're doing today and we'll have we'll be back tomorrow at 1:00 one of the girls forgot the Dess well I forgot the dress so we'll have a we'll have another show tomorrow at 1 so please come back and join us and thank you they're going to make one more final walk any pictures our music conductor here the photographer also all right thank you thank you ladies thank you girls if any of you have any questions for either of the ladies you're welcome to raise your hand I'll come to you with the microphone so we can all hear your question or they'll stand down here in front so you can take pictures to talk them at 6 o'clock today starting in 40 well about 35 minutes we'll have Caledonian dancers that'll be at that stage over there not in the tent of many voices so if you are interested in the next program it's going to be on the stage over there Caledonian dancers don't miss that a lot of Scottish dancing so see you at e