Newest Community Loan for Women's Ceremonial Dresses: Long Ago to Today

This week, we'll be hearing from Nealis Hall Curator and Registrar Brittany Britton on a dress being loaned to the museum for our display on women's ceremonial dresses.

Leona Wilkinson and Cheryl Seidner, Wiyot tribal members, and participants in the Wiyot Women's Group who assisted in making the Wiyot dress dropping off the loan.

As a part of the Women’s Ceremonial Dresses: Long Ago to Today, our goal was to ground the exhibit with the historic dresses from the collection ranging from the late 1800’s to the 1960s, and cycle through a rotating selection of community loans of contemporary counterparts. This tradition of making and ceremony is an unbroken path of resilience and adaptation to new materials and ways of making. For the newest dress loaned to the museum we are pleased to have on display a dress made by and for the Wiyot tribe in 2006.
This dress was made over the course of two years from 2004 to 2006 for Michelle Hernandez, a Wiyot Tribal member, as a part of a journey for the Wiyot Tribe of seeking, finding and completing a coming of age ceremony that hadn’t been done in decades. This dress is a small part of that ceremony and journey; it was lovingly made by community members and Michelle’s family for her coming of age ceremony. The Wiyot Tribe generously loaned this dress for the spring for this Women’s Ceremonial Dress exhibit. This dress is a connecting point of a revival of ceremony, of making and coming together as a tribal community. The dress here more than a finished project, it is made of deerskin, shells, beads and represents hours of prayer and artistry. 

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The Wiyot Tribe's dress on display at the Clarke Museum

​"Upon moving to the Table Bluff Rancheria from Sacramento Valley, Michelle Hernandez asked a simple question: How did the tribe celebrate a girl’s passage into womanhood? The answer to that question began the quest to bring back traditional practices. Recreating a ceremony that hadn’t been celebrated in over 150 years required many people, many hours of research and work, and the long term commitment of tribal participants. The Wiyot Women’s group created the dance dress, and the Wiyot men’s camp learned songs and dances that haven’t been performed in over a century. Other local tribes also brought skills and knowledge to the ceremony. Many helped in the process – local artist and Karuk/Yurok/Hupa tribal member Lyn Risling brought her personal research and experience to the ceremony; the Bureau of Land Management provided access to the south spit site; the Hernandez family learned the strict protocols to follow; tribal staff spent hours removing invasive vegetation to create the dance area." (From Rebirth Into Womanhood: A Coming of Age Journey, presentation by Wiyot Tribe)

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The materials are more on the traditional side being made of deerskin, clamshells, pinenuts, abalone, Beargrass wrappings and minimal glass beads. The materials and design of the dress is from the Wiyot Women’s group that assisted Michelle and her family in creating this dress alongside a bark skirt that was worn for the coming of age ceremony. The dress was ultimately donated to the Wiyot Tribe for safekeeping and so it would be danced again.
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Come visit the Clarke Historical Museum to see this dress in person, and the narrative of the story of this dress as representation of the continuing journey for ceremony for the Wiyot Tribe.