This was a beautiful cream colored wool wedding dress worn by Sisette La Flesche when she got married to Thomas Tibbles. It is a two-piece dress, where the jacket and skirt are separate. The jacket has a high collar with gold ruffles around the neck area and it has lace ruffles down the arms. As we look at the skirt it is very similar to the jacket, but on the center it has a gold detailing and a mini train in the back.
Susette La Flesche descended from Omaha tribal leaders on both sides of her family. She was raised on an earth lodge, though she also attended a mission school. At a young age, La Flesche witnessed the expulsion of the Ponca tribe from their homeland to Indian territory in 1877, and the repeated imprisonment of Standing Bear and other Poncas who had attempted to return to Nebraska. After seeing all of this, La Flesche turned towards a career of a nationally known activist who argued against the involuntary removal of indigenous people from their homelands and for Indian citizenship rights. The story behind the dress is, La Flesche found a soulmate in Thomas Tibbles a newspaper reporter from the Omaha Herald who followed the Ponca case.
From this dress we can see the effect settlers had on the Native Americans. La Flesche, a Native American born girl was directly affected by the way her people were treated and therefore decided to take action and became an activist. This dress really depicts the role colonization played in the life of a Native American. Straying away from traditional norms, La Flesche wore a western dress to her wedding day. Some may argue that it was because she was getting married to a white man but La Flesche was the daughter of two tribal leaders so there was some western influence on her decision. This gives us more insight about American History because this piece is of a woman who led civil rights for Native Americans, but along with that she assimilated with the western culture and took on some of the new traditions that were brought forth to her.

Wedding Dress worn by Inshata-Theumba