By The Associated Press

NEW YORK - An exhibit of 55 dresses from tribes in the Plains, Plateau and Great Basins regions opens Sept. 26 at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian.

The show is called “Identity by Design: Tradition, Change and Celebration in Native Women’s Dresses.”

Dress designs include full skirts to allow for horseback riding, an outfit to mark a girl’s passage to womanhood, dresses worn for ceremonial dances, and styles developed to identify membership in tribes or societies for women gifted in beadwork or other arts.

The dresses, most of them dating to the 19th century, include elaborately beaded yokes, fringed sleeves and hems, bright colours and geometric designs. They reflect European influences and trade with whites in the incorporation of items like wool and glass beads, along with traditional decorative elements like elk teeth and porcupine quills.

The museum, at One Bowling Green in Lower Manhattan, offers free admission.