American Indian Culture and Research Journal

This study provides a history of early to mid-twentieth century social worker Jessie Donaldson Schultz’s efforts to assist Northern Plains Native women in establishing economically viable handcraft programs. These projects opened a space for craft workers to perpetuate important traditions and values and assert agency within otherwise constraining circumstances. Northern Plains Native women’s success resulted from their ability to adapt existing traditional social and cultural structures to the demands of twentieth-century handcraft production.