Corn Husk Doll

This doll was collected in 1949 as a gift, but it is likely to be older than that. It is called a corn husk doll. It is 27 cm high. It was made out of cloth, wood, string, leather, beads. It is a traditional toy for children to play with. Today, they are really old and fragile. But, such dolls are still being made in the same manner as back then. As in the past, children are playing with these dolls. The doll did not used to have a face because the children could imagine it. Many years later somebody painted a face on the doll. The woman wears a traditional dress with her family colors and patterns sewed on it. The small bag is made out of leather and beads, and it could be a medicine bag.

Dolls were used for playing but they were also used for love, fertility, decorative pieces, healing or ceremonial purposes, or they could have been dolls modeled from someone in a family. A lot of tribes made these dolls to remember a loved one and keep their memory alive.