Many years later she told me that mother must have given her the money to buy the dress, and as many artifacts as she could get. A woman had come into a store and wanted to sell the dress. My sister was there and she bought it right away.

They wanted me to wear it so that they could take my picture. I did not like the dress because it scratched. Now how I wish I had that picture. I am standing there with my hair in long braids and I am with my pony. I did not like the long braids either. I loved my pony.

Now the pony is many years gone. His name was 'Black Beauty'. This is not very original I know. He was sometimes called Blackie, and sometimes called Beauty. Now I still wear my hair in braids, just because it's easier, and works with my budget. For many years the little buckskin dress lay in the bottopm of a red painted chest wraped up in tissue paper.

On one fateful day I took the dress and other items of my indian collection to school. I was ten years old. I was to give a talk about the plains Indians. My school chums loved the dress and wanted me to wear it. Very foolishly I attempted to oblige them, and I wore the dress to give my little talk at school. I had long out grown that little dress, but somehow managed to put is over my regular clothes. Of course when it came time to take the dress off. I could not remove it. I got an A for my talk, but I tore the dress when I took it off. How I dreaded going home that day. Would I get a whipping? I do not think I did. This I no longer remember.

Many years passed and one day again I came upon that little dress of long ago. Why did I decide to sell it? I just knew it would sell and I thought that I had to get rid of all of my worldly posessions. Of course the good stuff is pretty easy to sell, but the stuff you really want to get rid of, you can not give away.

The little dress was sold to someone out in Montana. It has gone back to indian territory. Mayed it is now well protected in a frame. Maybe someplace somewhere else another child is trying to wear it, and cries because it scratches when a picture is being taken.