This altar cloth is part of the Bishop Whipple Collection. Whipple was Minnesota’s first Episcipalian minister, appointed in 1859. He was an avid collector of Native American artwork, and an advocate for the American Indians living in the area.

Dialogics is a theory that examines how cultures communicate and influence one another. When I look at this altar cloth, I see that Bishop Whipple was ministering to and attempting to convert the American Indians in Minnesota. I also see how the Dakota influenced Whipple since a bead worker incorporated the word “Wakan”, the Dakota word for Spirit into this altarpiece.
-Tilly Laskey, Curator of Ethnology