Image from the website, A Life in Beads: The Story a Plains Dress can Tell
Sioux women preparing/tanning hides, ca. 1890. Photo by G. Ben Whittick. General Nelson A. Miles Collection, NMAI. |
Processing hide is a time consuming and exhausting process. Due to the light color of the bags shown here, they may have been prepared using a technique called “brain tanning”.
The quills present on these bags appear to be that of porcupine. Bird feathers and vegetal material such as root fibers and plant stems were also commonly used. These quills are not used in their natural state, the quill-worker processes each quill so it is easier to use. These particular quills have also been dyed. The beads present on these bags are likely what is referred to as “glass beads”. These beads were generally very small and came in a variety of colors. The Cheyenne and Sioux groups practiced many different stitching techniques, however, a popular style, and the only one seen on these particular bags, is refered to as the “lazy stitch”. |
QuillworkThis above bag was identified by its donor as Sioux. Both red and yellow dyed porcupine quill are present along with red feather and dyed red horsehair within metal tinklers.
There are many different quill weaving techniques that are used in Plains quillwork, however, this particular technique is referred to as the parallel band technique. In the parallel band technique, two rows of stitching are sewn parallel to one another, and the softened, flattened, and dyed quill are wrapped around the stitching. In order to properly use porcupine quills, they need to be softened, usually by placing in water or in the creator's mouth, and flattened with a stone, then dyed. In addition, bird feathers as well as plant material were also commonly used in place of porcupine quills. Plant material is usually easy to differentiate from quill due to texture and size. Bird feather quills are slightly more difficult to identify. This would be done by looking for jagged edges rather than the smooth sides of porcupine quills. Notice the smooth texture and edges of the bag pictured above. These are most certainly porcupine. To Learn More about quillwork, checkout:
Candace Greene's article, The Use of Plant Fibers in Plains Indian Embroidery: http://www.aiamagazine.com/volume/176 |
BeadworkThe bag shown here is UCM 33425. The small, colorful beads you see are considered glass seed beads and became popular by in the mid 19th century. These beads were acquired by the Sioux and Cheyenne as well as other Plains groups, by trade.
In addition to glass seed beads, metallic beads could be found in Plains Indian beadwork and when seen, was late in the 19th century (1880-present). These beads were most commonly seen in Sioux bead art. In the second image above you will see a good example of Sioux metallic beadwork. Notice the dark silver colored beads mixed with the dark red beads, these are metal and only found on this possible bag. The most common stitch type amongst the Cheyenne and Sioux tribes is called the "lazy stitch", an example of this is seen above. The lazy stitch is simply a column of beads on thread or sinew, where the sinew or thread is attached to the hide in limited areas. To Learn More about beadwork techniques, try:
http://centerofthewest.org/explore/plains-indians/f-a-q/ and Koch, Ronald P. Koch's Dress Clothing of the Plains Indians: http://www.oupress.com/ECommerce/Book/Results/0/Title/true?Query=title=dress%20clothing%20of%20the%20plains%20indians Above image:
Possible bag Sioux Donor: Charles Eagle Plume UCM 33425 |