Native American Dolls

In every culture I am aware of, parents give their children dolls and toys to play with. Native North America was no exception, and there are dollmaking traditions in many tribes which have survived to this day.

However, the idea of a child's doll as a lasting keepsake is not really traditional in a lot of Indian tribes. Dolls were usually made of perishable materials like cornhusk, palmetto fiber, or bundled pine needles; even those that were made out of wood or leather were not often built to last the way adult crafts were. In many tribes it was considered inappropriate to discipline a very young child, so they simply weren't given items they weren't allowed to chew on and throw in the river. And in some tribes, the impermanence of children's dolls and toys was meaningful to parents--as corn husk dolls and other childhood things naturally fell apart with time, it showed that a child was growing up. Even though Native American dolls were not traditionally made to last, they were often beautifully adorned with miniature clothing and jewelry, beadwork or painting, and animal fur or even hair from the mother's head. Because native adornment and decorative patterns are so distinctive, dolls made by native craftsmen are distinctive as well, and today many people, adults and children alike, like to keep them as cultural collectibles as well as toys.

If you are looking to buy a doll that was actually made by Native Americans--either because it's important to you to have the real thing or because you want to support native people with your purchase--then here is our list of American Indian doll-makers whose crafts are available online. Hopefully this can provide you with a good starting point. If you have a website of Indian toys and dolls to add to this list, let us know. We gladly advertise any individual native artist or native-owned art store here free of charge, provided that all dolls were made by tribally recognized American Indian, Inuit, or First Nations artists.