[Doll] Don Tenoso made this puppet to accompany storytelling. It can clasp several objects--including a gourd rattle and shield--that teach children about 19th-century Lakota culture.

The objects also symbolize attributes possessed by the traditional folktale trickster as represented by the doll. The trickster often appears in different forms and teaches people through deception. The doll exploits tricksters' inherent humor to address the tensions of being Lakota in the modern United States.

Courtesy of the National Museum of Natural History .

Iktomi ("Trickster doll"), 1990, made by Don Tenoso (b. 1960), Lakota Sioux, western plains states, wood, feathers, cloth, and beads

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