Museum Minute: Spoon Exemplifies Quill Work wyomingpublicmedia.org - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from wyomingpublicmedia.org Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
1:00
Credit Paul Dyck Buffalo Culture Collection; NA.202.1229
One day while working in the Plains Indian Museum collections, Hunter Old Elk, the curatorial assistant, found a very heavy box. I didn t really know what it was going to be, said Old Elk. I kind of had an idea. I called a colleague over. He helped me uncover this box, we pulled it down, and it ended up being a 20 pound dress.
The dress is covered in dentalium shells, also known as money shells. They were used as currency among tribes. Dentalium was fished out of the British Colombia coast down through Vancouver and then traded into the Plains.