Dolls representing an Apache man and an Apache woman

1954
Buckskin, glass trade beads, yarn, nylons and cotton cloth, paint
9 9/16 × 4 7/16 × 1 5/16 in.

Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College: The Wellington Indian Doll Collection, Gift of Barbara Wellington Wells; 987.35.26781-2

Look & Discuss

These two dolls were created by Chiricahua Apache dollmaker Enauoyaha Mariana Telto Smith about 60 years ago. Like many Indian dolls made for sale, they are dressed in ceremonial clothing. The doll maker who created them drew upon the same skills Chiricahua Apache women have always used for making traditional clothing for their families.

Explore the Object

These dolls are clothed in old-style Chiricahua ceremonial dress, or regalia. To make the dolls, Smith combined natural and man-made materials. She made the dolls’ bodies from cloth. She painted on their faces and used yarn for their hair. She made their clothing from buckskin and embellished it with glass trade beads.

The male doll is wearing a beaded buckskin shirt with buckskin thongs on the chest, back sleeves, and bottom. His shirt is decorated with strips of beadwork in alternating rows of white and blue beads. His buckskin pants are close fitting, with buckskin thongs and beaded strips down the sides. His high-topped moccasins are typical Apache style. They are made of buckskin and decorated with strands of white and blue beads. He also wears a beaded red and blue buckskin headband. Around his neck he has a light blue and red beaded necklace.

The female doll is wearing a fringed buckskin blouse and knee-length skirt. Both are decorated with strips of red and blue and white and blue beadwork. On the chest and back of the blouse is a u-shaped pattern of alternating light blue and dark red beads. Her moccasins are high-topped buckskin trimmed around the sole with alternating red and light blue beads. The top of the foot is also decorated with a row of red beads and a row of light blue, red, and yellow beads. Well-to-do Apaches usually decorated their moccasins around the edges. She has a fancy beaded choker around her neck and a loom-beaded headband. Finally, she also wears a wine and light blue beaded bracelet on her left hand.

Crafting dolls with this level of detail required tremendous skill and care.

learn more

Watch this video to see art historian Joyce Szabo discuss Enauoyaha Mariana Telto Smith’s male and female Apache dolls.

For an excellent teacher resource on Native American dolls, access the Fall 2004 issue of Smithsonian in Your Classroom by the The National Museum of the American Indian.