Many women on the reservations make and sell star quilts. The rock bottom price is usually about $200. Some more expensive ones are made from satin. Usually they are made from cotton. Many times the tribes buy them from their members to give out as gifts. The women learned how to quilt from some of the first white women in the area. They made up their own designs, however. The Oglala and Sisseton tribes have gifted quilts to the Native groups to give away at powwows.
Star quilts are given to honor someone living or someone who has died. They are given at graduations and to someone going on a vision quest.
They are often gifted to the families of a person who has died and are hung on the walls of the room where the funeral is held. They are wrapped around the shoulders of a person being honored which is usually followed by an honoring song. The person honored along with the presenters of the quilt slowly dance around the room or arena while people come from the crowd to shake their hands and then to follow along behind them in the dance. Even very young children are taught to shake hands. Sometimes female guests hug me. (The only physical contact allowed between inmates and volunteers is a handshake.)
The star design is an old one. Lakota belief is that when someone dies their spirit goes toward the Morning Star in the Milky Way. Star quilts can represent a connection between the living and the deceased. They also represent generosity. The men in prison wrap their powwow drums in star quilts.
The Yankton Tribe gave the men on the Hill a star quilt to hang in their common area. My office is the closest thing they have to a common area so it is hung on a wall there. Whenever there is a powwow, the men take it down and present it to me during an honoring dance at the powwow. After the powwow, they hang it up in my office again. It’s another display of Native humor!
Over the years I have received a number of star quilts to keep. I have passed them on as gifts from the NACT group for deaths of spiritual leaders and for honoring of dignitaries.
Mary Mantoya
