Dave McGary

Back

View Artist's Biography

In Her Father's Footsteps
Lifesize 56"h
Bronze with Patina and Paint


"In Her Father’s Footsteps" depicts a six year old girl, dressing up like her father, the Chief. She is wearing his beaded moccasins and trying on his ceremonial headdress, both of which are a little too big. Her favorite doll is at her feet. Her buckskin dress with the beaded yoke is belted with a beaded turtle navel amulet bag. This turtle bag was attached to the baby's cradle as its first toy and later worn around the neck or waist and kept for a lifetime as a charm to insure long life. Indians shared a creation legend in which the first human life was carried safely through the water covered world on the back of a turtle. The cord represented a link between life before birth and death.