Miss Elhers was
a school teacher, who spent her summers traveling
to different Native American reservations, to live with and
learn about the various Native American cultures. She asked
the tribes that she lived with to make dolls
wearing their native costumes, and the result was
a truly extraordinary collection.
It includes
dolls from 39 different Native American tribes, among them
the Ute, Cheyenne, Arapaho, Cochiti, Zuni, Kosati,
Spokane, Tuscarora, Navajo, Kiowa, Mohawk,
Penobscot, Papago, Mission, Delaware, and many,
many other tribes. Miss Elhers donated the
collection to the museum in 1979. This is a
world-class collection, and has been visited and
admired by thousands of doll collectors and people
interested in Native American culture.
