18th century Southeastern embellishments

[Tomcat1066]

So, with the bag I'm constructing (as soon as the leather is stretched that is), I also plan on doing a knife sheath for a trade knife I bought on clearance from Crazy Crow. However, I'd like for both to have some real style that keeps them from looking like what everyone else might have.

My hope is that some of you good folks might know some period embellishments (beadwork, add on decorations, etc. Not big on tooling) that I could add to each/both. The persona I'm pursuing is that of a scout ranging between Savannah and Fort Augusta and has had a fair amount of Indian contact through the years. I'm not finding squat for the Creeks unfortunately, but I also know that there are a lot of folks who know a whole lot more than little old me :grin:

Any help would be appreciated.

 

[omarick1948]

Research, research and more research every nook and cranny for information! ___ That's one of the fun parts of learning "how" and "why!" ___ There are no single answers or substitute for researching first hand at what you want and need!

Rick

 

[Tomcat1066]

Yeah, that's what I've been trying to do. Unfortunately, I'm coming up with zip. I was hoping someone else had something that I haven't been able to find. After all, a lot of folks have been doing this a lot longer that lil old me :grin:

 

[BillinOregon]

Tom: Noodle around here, as something will surely turn up: http://www.nativetech.org/

 

[Tomcat1066]

Bill,

That was actually one of my first stops. Unfortunately the Southeastern beadwork I've seen on that site is 19th century in origin, so I have no idea if that's what it would have looked like a century earlier.

I sooooo should have opted for something more northern

 

[Flint311]

Check out this site (?): http://www.berrybeadwork.com/ The link "About the Artist" mentions Creek. I googled "Southeastern Beadwork" and this popped up.

 

[Tomcat1066]

I've looked at her stuff as well, but again no information about 18th century motifs IIRC. While many of the modern Native American artisans speak of "traditional" element, it's hard to tell when those items became traditional. From what I understand, much of what is considered traditional today actually came into usage in the mid 19th century. Of course, some of the elements on her work certain has a feel of something much older, and probably is...but danged if I can tell when it was. FWIW, I emailed her a while back and never received a reply...however my email may have acted wonky so I'll probably try again and hope for better luck this time.

Of course, I also can't remember where I read that so it's entirely plausible that that isn't a particular credible source.

This is so making my head hurt now :shocked2:

Edited to add: I want to thank everyone for their assistance. I've been looking all over Google to try and find what I can and seen a fair amount, but there's been something lacking. However, unless I know something is documentable to the 18th century, I'm just not able to accept it as such.

 

[paulvallandigham]

Understand that many of the sciences did not come into being until the 19th century, and then not very early in that century , either.We did not have museums and any artifacts from native American tribes survived ONLY because they were held in private collections in the 18th century.

For those reasons, you should not be upset, nor surprised to find very little examples of clothing, or gear, much less native designs from that early a date. We did a much better job of preserving histories in the 19th and 20th centuries of native tribes all over N. America.

Years ago, now, when I was developing my "Persona" I went to the Field Museum of Natural History, in Chicago to find out about Pre-British native tribes in Illinois. As we know, the French explorers, Marquette, and LaSalle, were the first modern Europeans to explore Illinois Country, and gave it its name.

What I found in the museum was a lot of costumes, showing French colors, and the French Fleur de lis on the dark blue cloth( the color of the French royal flag of the day! I found nothing involving clothing worn before the French arrived here. Unless such information is stashed in some museum in Franch, I doubt the information or artifacts still exist. :hmm: :thumbsup:

 

[LaBonte]

These sites should get you started and there are lots of research links off the first two....
http://www.southernindiandept.org/researchresources.htm
http://amohkali.southeasterntrading.com/18thclinks.htm
http://anthro.amnh.org/north
http://www.splendidheritage.com/nindex.html

 

[Tomcat1066]

Paul,

That's kind of what I've been gathering as well. Material culture of the Creeks from the 19th century seems to be all but non-existant as far as the internet is concerned, and a couple of conversations with some folks who know far more than I do on that subject came up with zip as well. Such is life, huh? :wink:

Chuck,

I've looked at all of those sites to some degree, but not so much on the Amohkali site. (BTW, he's moving it to a different site: http://amohkali.com/ ) I started looking more at his documentation, not realizing he also linked to scans and photos of period pieces. Plus, he's from pretty close by so I'm definitely going to reach out to him for more info.

Thanks everyone for the help.