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1993: 50 Works for 50 Years

unknown artist, Ojibwa

untitled (dress)

The Frank and Anna Dudeck Memorial Collection of Native American Art was assembled 1914 – 1927. During those years Frank owned and operated the Opitz general store in Peever, South Dakota and traded with Native American neighbors for materials in the collection. The collection includes 120 objects, primarily of Eastern Sioux and Ojibwa origin.

Frank Dudeck was born in 1878 in Rolling Prairie, Indiana. His family settled in northeastern South Dakota about 1894, following the opening of the Sisseton and Wahpeton Indian Reservation lands. In Peever, Dudeck taught, served as the school principal and postmaster, published the local newspaper, and operated the Opitz Store. He married Anna Laurie O’Bryan, a native of the Morris, Minnesota area. Two daughters were born from the union, Irene “Jerry” Abel (1909 – 2002) of Brookings, South Dakota and Florence Dahlner (1911 - 1999) of Port Orchard, Washington. Frank Dudeck died in 1957 and Anna Dudeck in 1974. With their passing, the collection was transferred to their daughters.

In 1980, the Frank and Anna Dudeck Collection was loaned to the South Dakota Art Museum. Soon after, a traveling exhibition consisting of a selection of twenty-five objects from the collection was organized. Throughout the 1980s, the museum exhibited portions of the collection in the Native American Art gallery.

In 1993, Abel and Dahlner donated the entire collection to the South Dakota Art Museum.

Ojibwas of the Upper Midwest like the Navajo in the Southwest, have made extensive use of velvet cloth supplied by white traders. Ojibwas have shown a preference for black velvet, which seems to be an ideal background for their spectacular floral beadwork designs as seen in this dress dating to circa 1915.

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