Bead work on a rifle case

[crockett]

Both east and west. In the Great Lakes area a lot of the bead work was done with each individual bead affixed to the leather. In the west some of the work used a "lazy" stitch where you put 3-4 beads on the string/sinew and then attached the string/sinew to the leather.
The string could be run in and out both sides of the leather or you could "prick" the surface of the leather but not push the needle through and run the needle forward a little through the thickness of the leather and then back out the surface (same side). This makes it a lot easier to bead moccasin toes on completed moccasins.
There is actually quite a bit to this beading business and I only have dabbled in it. Different tribes used different background colors, etc. and certain images (Turtle, etc.)had special meaning. The floral work was for men only (as I understand it) while geometric was for men or women. The bead sizes also changed with the passage of time, as technology improved the beads got smaller (seed beads).
IAE the whole thing requires a little research. Probably the fastest answer is to find an original you like, Crow, Sioux, etc. and just copy it as close as possible.

 

[LaBonte]

Both east and west. In the Great Lakes area a lot of the bead work was done with each individual bead affixed to the leather. In the west some of the work used a "lazy" stitch where you put 3-4 beads on the string/sinew and then attached the string/sinew to the leather.
The string could be run in and out both sides of the leather or you could "prick" the surface of the leather but not push the needle through and run the needle forward a little through the thickness of the leather and then back out the surface (same side). This makes it a lot easier to bead moccasin toes on completed moccasins.
There is actually quite a bit to this beading business and I only have dabbled in it. Different tribes used different background colors, etc. and certain images (Turtle, etc.)had special meaning. The floral work was for men only (as I understand it) while geometric was for men or women. The bead sizes also changed with the passage of time, as technology improved the beads got smaller (seed beads).
IAE the whole thing requires a little research. Probably the fastest answer is to find an original you like, Crow, Sioux, etc. and just copy it as close as possible.

With all due respect Dave but you've got some things wrong:
1) I'm not sure I would consider western Great Lakes eastern. Rifle cases don't seem to have been used east of the Appalachians until perhaps much later. Rifle cases do appear mostly in the west, western Great Lakes, and as far north as the Yukon and even those places don't start showing up until the very early 1800's in any kind of numbers. Decoration depends on the area and tribe. Quillwork was used as decoration by the Great Lakes tribes, as well as some of the western tribes such as the Cheyenne, Sioux, Plains Cree, Mandan/Hidatsa, and Crow - basically tribes either originating in the western Great Lakes or those from the Upper Missouri/Northern Rockies who had direct trade links with the GL tribes. Quillwork was and still is being used by the Crow, Sioux, and Cheyenne all through the 1800's and on through today.

2)

In the Great Lakes area a lot of the bead work was done with each individual bead affixed to the leather.

First off this is known as the appliqué technique and uses two different threads. The first thread hold the beads and the second is used to tack down the beads - usually every second or third bead not each individual one albeit there is some work done that way. This technique was used not only in the great lakes but also by the Blackfoot (almost all Blackfoot work), the Crow - who often used it in conjunction with the lane stitch (old name lazy) and the Crow stitch, which is similar the the appliqué style but the beads are tacked down every ten to twelve beads instead - a style used for large areas of coverage, the Shoshone, the Nez Perce, and the Utes. In fact most all floral beadwork is done using the applique stitch no matter what tribe, albeit many of the Plains and Trans Montane tribes didn't use it until rather late. The beads were often strung on sinew and then tacked down using cloth thread, especially amongst the Crow who are considered one of the masters at beadwork along with the Metis.

3)

In the west some of the work used a "lazy" stitch where you put 3-4 beads on the string/sinew and then attached the string/sinew to the leather.

The number of beads is actually determined by the width of the lane and the size of the beads - with lanes usually 3/8" to 5/8" wide. For instance when using 8/0 pound beads it usually take 5 beads for a 3/8" lane and 7 or 8 for a 5/8" lane. With the smaller seed beads the number of beads may go as many as 12-14 dependent on size and lane width.

4)

Different tribes used different background colors, etc. and certain images (Turtle, etc.)had special meaning.

While George Catlin claimed in the 1830's that there were distinctive tribal differences that early, he failed to describe them and modern researchers have yet to not major distinctions in tribal design and/or colors until the late 1840's and 1850's, when the Crow and Cheyenne work first became distinctive. Much Crow work was/is based on the painted designs used on their parfleches. As for floral being male only, some researchers have stated that, but the fact is there is both male and female beaded goods using the technique so....

5)

The bead sizes also changed with the passage of time, as technology improved the beads got smaller (seed beads).

This is one of those misconceptions thas has far too long been touted as fact. While it is generally true that seeds bead usage was not common until the 1850's and later seed bead were being made and imported from the late 1700's onward in sizes as small as 18/0 base on archeological digs in both the east and west. Plus several of the western trade lists from the early 1800's include seed beads - sometimes called embroidery beads. One of the earliest still extant western pieces using seed beads is a Comanche strike-a-light pouch collected in the 1830's. The Crow often (and still do) used/use a mix of the larger pound beads and seed beads.

As note no it's not a simple subject and I agree one of the best ways to learn is to copy an original, noting that the more heavily beaded cases are almost all from the post 1880s during the Rez period.

 

[crockett]

Thanks, as I said, I'm not that well versed on beading but the whole thing is certainly a complicated subject. I learned enough to put a rim of white beads around the red vamp on some moccasins and that's about it. I forgot about that two string technique. BUT...the big point is that beading is a complicated subject. I have a bad habit of getting all excited about something and rushing into a project and then find out later I didn't do a lot of things correctly. I try to do more research these days but even then I often find out later I still made mistakes. Others might not notice but I do and it wears against me.
There's a magazine Whispering Winds, it deals with NDN crafts and usually has at least 2-3 good, useable articles per issue. Sometimes they feature an old relic and I remember one, I think they were moccasins, mostly a white back ground and certain main colors and the actual tribe was in question- such as "either Kiowa or Arapahoe" or something along those lines but I was surprised that even the experts weren't sure on the tribe- at least in that article.
And then all the symbols and figures and their meanings. To create a new beadwork pattern and get it right would seem very difficult, that's why I figured the best thing to do is just find an original and copy that.
Great Lakes East? Okay, I'm revealing my childhood back in the age of train travel. When the corn showed up you were in the "Midwest" and when you finally got to Chicago you were in the "East", the farthest eastern city I could imagine or had ever been in. :grin:

 

[LaBonte]

And then all the symbols and figures and their meanings.

While there have been several attempts to quantify what the symbols mean, even the experts agree it's an exercise in frustration since in most cases the symbols mean different things to the different makers - beadwork and it's symbology is highly individualized even in the same tribe, although there are some symbols such as the thunderbird that are more generalized.
As for tribal attribution of various goods like the moccasin you mention, one of the problems is that tribes often intermarried and/or took prisoners and those folks often either made things in the style they learned or combined the two styles. Also you have items collected at later dates from tribes that did not originate the piece but own them via trade or as plunder. During the late Rez period for instance the Crow trade horse to the Sioux and the item when collected was then attributed to the Crow - beaded vests made by the Sioux but collected from the Crow is one example, so yes the whole subject an become complicated.

 

[davidmc62]

Then there is the whole "made for the trade" thing.....yes there were specialized trade goods made by different tribes and traded for. As to the meaning of certain design elements it is a confusing mess sometime because different tribal traditions and history would attach different meaning and more or less significance to similar designs that were reproduced in different geographic locations by different tribes. Eastern, western, Northern plains, southern; all areas seemed to have a distinct sets of design elements that dominated the work which allows the student to "recognize and categorize" but there is so much blending between tribes in close proximity of different geographic locals that one can often only get close to identifying origins or tribal makers. Having spent a little time in and around the current Pow Wow culture, I do know there is a strong sense of ownership "tribal and personal" of ones design elements. Many of the current native bead workers out there still place allot of meaning and significance to what they produce and they frown upon outright copying of there designs...but they are usually very willing to trade or sell :grin:

 

[crockett]

Which sort of brings us back to a beaded rifle case. If the case was owned by a mountain man of European decent, then was there bead styles unique to them or would the beading have been done in a particular tribal manner. Then, just make matters even more confusing, there would be the eastern (Delaware, Shawnee, Etc. that had moved into Missouri, etc. and could have had an influence.

 

[LaBonte]

They mountaineers gear would have been beaded in the style that the woman doing the beading or quillwork (note Ruxton in 1846 mentions the mountaineers clothing being quilled not beaded) had been trained in. There is really no documentation for a beadwork style unique to the mountaineers.
At least some of the beadwork/quillwork worn by the mountaineers was done by the Metis or those trained in that style, which FWIW was heavily influenced by the embroidery taught to them by Catholic nuns - for instance the original sketch by Miller of Joe Walker and his woman following behind has the beadwork on his pouch in a floral style and he is also un-bearded - unfortunately for later researchers many changes were made to the original field sketches for the later paintings under the influence of Captain Stewart his patron who apparently wanted the legend painted rather than the fact. Another major change is the original sketch of Ole Bill Burrows showing him wearing buckskin pantaloons, a cloth shirt, and a blanket capote. In a later iteration Miller has him wearing a full buckskin outfit.
In other images by Miller though there is some simple narrow beadwork strips on coats, mostly around the shoulder seams, done most likely using the lane stitch as is also shown on the many Indian made shot pouches worn by mountainners.

 

[davidmc62]

What beading was done by trappers would probably been simple at best. Trading was the name of the game. Clothes wore out and needed replacing and the closest source was usually a nearby trading post or some friendly Indians who could make replacement clothing for them if the trapper couldn't cobble something together himself. If any adornment was placed on the clothes it would probably been in the style of the craftswoman traditions who produced the garment. But as mentioned above the Metis traded and sold stuff all over and it would find its way into European hands quite regularly and all over the west. How much input the customer had on the decorating details I'm not sure. I should also mention native made items contracted for sale by trading posts. But back to rifle cases, I don't know how prevalent those items would have been in the beaded form during the fur trade era. Most of the elaborate beaded rifle cases I see are usually of a much later period. But they do look smart don't they?

 

And then all the symbols and figures and their meanings.

While there have been several attempts to quantify what the symbols mean, even the experts agree it's an exercise in frustration since in most cases the symbols mean different things to the different makers -

And I would suspect that there were cases when the designs meant nothing. Sometimes shapes are done because it fits the medium in which you're working. Or, a flower is just a flower.

I think we tend to put a romantic "spiritual" connotation on everything the Native Americans did, but I don't think that's wise.

 

[tenngun]

Good point Jack. Since the Indians had an I-Thou relationship with the world the boundry between spiritual and secular was blurred. Spritual symbolism may be imbued after the fact. Tribes intermarried, traded, took captured women and adopted them, took clothing in battle or raids, discarded stuff on the trail only to be found by some one else. An historic piece in a museum that was collected, painted or photographed in 18such and such and labled with the name of a tribe may have infact came from some other sorce. A Crow women captured by a Sioux may have made something traded to a northern chyanne traded to a southern captured in a raid by Kiowa and colleted by a white man there put on display as a Kiowa piece. The owner then told the white man that the beadwork represented such and such.

 

[Claude Mathis]

I think we tend to put a romantic "spiritual" connotation on everything the Native Americans did, but I don't think that's wise.

When I was first studying Native Americans, I read that they faced the door of the 'Tipi' toward the East "so they could greet the sunrise". Then I realized that it made practical sense due to a predominately Westernly wind and the arrangement of the smoke flaps. :haha:

 

[tenngun]

Just as a point of wonder, often camps were set up in circles duing multi band gatherings such as Sun Dance. On map of the Kiowa drawn in the late 1840s exist with the bands pencled in around the circle, as each band camped in line. I woder that in this case if doors faced east or the center of the circle.
I pray with my pipe, I use my pipe just for the plesure of smoking. Some times I'm brain dead while smoking, some times I think deep.
Some find God in church, some in the woods, some in other places...but I bet the joy and plesure is found at the same time.Where in the rainbow does yellow become green?

 

[tenngun]

What beading was done by trappers would probably been simple at best. Trading was the name of the game. Clothes wore out and needed replacing and the closest source was usually a nearby trading post or some friendly Indians who could make replacement clothing for them if the trapper couldn't cobble something together himself. If any adornment was placed on the clothes it would probably been in the style of the craftswoman traditions who produced the garment. But as mentioned above the Metis traded and sold stuff all over and it would find its way into European hands quite regularly and all over the west. How much input the customer had on the decorating details I'm not sure. I should also mention native made items contracted for sale by trading posts. But back to rifle cases, I don't know how prevalent those items would have been in the beaded form during the fur trade era. Most of the elaborate beaded rifle cases I see are usually of a much later period. But they do look smart don't they?

I leared to do bead work and enjoyed it. Now it dosnt fit my time and place, was in fact mostly too late for the MM period, oh well live and learn.
In that same time, and well before, sailors did a lot of fancy emboridry. Sets me thinking, times where its too cold to trap, short days with little to do, a supply of beads Hmm.
By just after the MM period we have histoic clthing with floral bead work. Was it Indian made,was the floral that was used in westren tribes copied from embrodery, or from the work of board white boys :idunno:

 

[Claude Mathis]

Just as a point of wonder, often camps were set up in circles duing multi band gatherings such as Sun Dance. On map of the Kiowa drawn in the late 1840s exist with the bands pencled in around the circle, as each band camped in line. I woder that in this case if doors faced east or the center of the circle.

To vent the smoke efficiently, the flaps need to be oriented properly (and adjusted periodically). Facing the door and flaps toward the predominantly Westerly wind would not be recommended. IMO

 

[davidmc62]

Alot of the floral bead work you see on Indian made clothes "owned" by Whites was done by Indian craftsmen. The Metis ( half Indian/French-European) in Canada and alot of the northern and central areas did alot of floral work. The Metis were famous for this kind of work and they sold and traded that stuff all over the place. Some scholars say the metis learned this floral work from the Jesuit schools (Floral Embroidery work) and adapted there bead work techniques to those styled patterns to create the wonderful floral work you see on so many of those early buckskin jackets attributed to fur trade period. Now did they have those jackets when they were in the mountains or later after they retired from that life and just wanted a set of skins to look the part of a frontiersmen? It was a big fashion statement after all. Fashion was buckskin fringe, quill and beadwork. People back east were expecting that look from their frontier heros. All them frontiersmen were not going to let the folks back east down. :grin:

 

[tenngun]

Certenly the French side of Metsie ancestory could have brought floral in to the society, with out the church.
French were doing floral imbrodery before they started Canada. Eastren tribes in general began to produce floral bead work as trade itams. Floral beadwork that looks a lot like Great lakes bead work was being produced from the late middle ages in south Slovic Europe.Westren tribes also began producing lots of floral, and sold a lot.
I used to bead every thing, in the manner of late Indian war early reservation period. Now I dont as its is not proper for my time and place. If I wereto do westren trade period I would refrin from having much bead work, as I think its post rather then peri fur trade. I do think it was seen most on Frontierman as it became the style. I knew you can see some in paintings, so we know it was there. We have the beaded stuff L and C returned with, so we know it was used even before the start of the MM period.
And it sure do look nice. I dont remember any reference to MM sitting around the fire beading, but I dont recall any log entry of 'men empolyed embrodering their slops'or a irregular diery saying , "kilt three Yankees today, got my right sleave flower done on my shirt". Did any Whites do their own? I can't argue that they did, but would not be surprised if they had. Still the old saw about buying the cow...Indian women had several products to sell the young trapers.