I don't know one way or the other about the ancient or modern history of the tear dress. However modern paintings and pictures use the tear dress as a remembrance for the "Trail Where They Cried". I have pictures of Past Chief Wilma Mankiller and the clam mothers all wearing a tear dress.
Even if it isn't ancient it does serve to remind one about the fact that when the tribe arrived in Oklahoma they had nothing and so the dress was suupposed to be made from fabric torn into rectangles which could be gathered and hand stitched together. The Ribbon Shirts the men wear are not ancient either. The story is that when they were consigned to the boarding schools and could not in any way live their culture, they got permission to put specific ribbons on their shirts. The colors denoted their tribe. I have heard the schools did not know this but just thought they were decorating the shirts with pretty ribbons.