Lakota women were partners with men in the work of raising children and supporting a family, although they had separate spheres of activity. One way Lakota women cared for their families was to make and decorate beautiful clothing for all members, including their brothers to whom they had a lifelong obligation. Fine apparel for their families was and still is a sign of affection and honor from wives, mothers, sisters, and grandmothers.

Lakota women, respected for their skill as artists, excelled in quillwork and beadwork. Artists ingeniously converted porcupine quills, readily found in nature, into elaborate surface decorations. When glass beads were imported from Europe as a trade item in the nineteenth century, Plains women stitched them into their own traditional patterns, so that today beadwork is regarded as a purely indigenous art form. Lakota women have maintained an unbroken tradition of making quill- and beadwork embroidery, continuing to do beautiful work today.