Giclée print in archival inks on acid- and lignin-free paper

Original painting in acrylic on linen  35” x 26”  1995

Collection of Natalie Fay Linn 

The gala dress and elaborate horse gear of a young Yakama woman reflect the warm color of the setting sun.  The yoke of her trade cloth dress is covered with rows of dentalium shells from the coast and highly prized by the Plateau people.  Fur trading companies early recognized their value and imported thousands, obtained in trade from the tribes along the west coast of Vancouver Island.  The richly beaded belt, blanket strip and saddle are of the Transmontane style, shared by the Crow people of Montana, but her double saddle bag with its long fringes, the flat  bag hung on the prong of the saddle pommel, and the broad horse collar are made of recycled flat bags, cut apart and reassembled in new form.  Brass bells add to the effect.  Unique to the Plateau is the twined, tapered woman’s hat, with its complex pattern of elaborated triangles.  Her necklaces of shell disc beads, called “wampum” on the Plateau, and faceted cylindrical beads of cobalt blue glass, called “Hudson’s Bay beads,” or “Russian beads,” are typical Plateau finery.  Long strips of otter fur wrap the young woman’s braids, topped with earrings of broad conch shell discs that echo the nearly-full moon rising behind her.