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As in his popular bronze work Walks Among The Stars, Dave McGary
again focuses on the enduring significance of the heirloom star quilt in Lakota
Culture in his Study titled Grandmother's Heirloom. In this heart-warming
scene, a young teenage Lakota girl proudly admires a beautiful star quilt
recently given to her by her grandmother.
Among the Lakota, the star quilts hold special meaning for those who make
them, as well as for those who receive them as gifts. They
treasured symbols of prestige, sentiment, belonging and status
within the tribe. An integral part of many tribal ceremonies and rites, star
quilts are made to honor individual achievements in academic or athletic pursuits
and are given as gifts in ceremonies for dignitaries, births, marriages, funerals
and adoptions. Every young Lakota woman was expected to have numerous star
quilts to take to her new home upon marrying.
As the settlers and soldiers moved west, they bought quilts. Then in the
late 1800's when the Indian Wars ended, the Lakota faced relocation
to reservations. The Lakota women had seen the "Lone Star" quilts
belonging to the settlers and began making patchwork quilts as replacements
for the buffalo robes.
The Sioux were keen observers of the Morning Star (Venus) and used representations
of this star in paintings on hides and beadwork. Later, they adapted the Morning
Star into their quilt designs, drawing from the circular star and sunburst
patterns painted on buffalo skins. The
tribes of the Great Plains viewed life as a circle. The famous
Ogalala holy man Black Elk once remarked, "Everything the power of the
world does is in a circle. The life of a man is a circle from childhood to
childhood, and so it is in everything where power moves".
Grandmother's Heirloom depicts a young Lakota woman displaying a star quilt
made for her by her grandmother. Fashioned in the traditional pattern, the
quilt is filled mostly by an eight-pointed Morning Star with several smaller
stars around the border. Delighted with the gift,
the excited teen has partially wrapped herself in the soft
comfort of the heirloom, draping part of the quilt across her shoulder as
she holds out the test of it to admire. The young woman is wearing a buckskin
dress with the yoke and the moccasins on her feet both beaded in the pattern
of her clan.
Study Bronze with Patina and Paint,
Edition of 100, Year Cast 2001
