Plains-Style Beadwork and Quillwork
I think this is a relatively safe assumption to make: most people, no matter their culture, want to look pretty. Decorative elements exist everywhere, regardless of the materials available. Here in the plains of North America, you couldn't get, say, seashells as easily as you could on the East or West coasts. Therefore, one of the main decorative elements available out here, prior to European glass beads, was porcupine quills.
Poor quality image of quillwork on the loom, taken by myself at the Royal Alberta Museum.
For reference for those who may live outside of North America and/or city dwellers who have never seen one before, this is the animal that I'm talking about:
Porcupine quills are very versatile and easily dyed. Illustrated, again, by the wonderful Royal Alberta Museum:
Still, as you can imagine, they're very time-consuming to work with. First you have to find the porcupine, then kill it, pluck it (or hang it up above a blanket, which catches the quills when they fall as the animal rots), dye the quills, then soak them, THEN work with them. So as you can imagine, when European glass beads arrived, it caused an explosion in new art in the region. But first, a more traditional example of quillwork:
You can see the segments of the quills as they're wrapped around. Very geometric, yes? The quills are still very versatile, and you can get many relatively vibrant natural dyes, especially yellows, reds, browns, greens, and even purples (from the blueberry), but not, for instance, sky blue... or, at least, not in the Edmonton region.
Once you started to get European beads arriving, many of the traditional patterns were carried over from quillwork. (Side note: because of existing trade networks, European trade goods were traded ahead of Europeans themselves. Thus, when the Hudson's Bay Company set up in the region of the Saskatchewan rivers, the Cree were already familiar with beads, blankets, metal pots, etc., through other Cree tribes acting as middlemen.) While it's possible to do, say, flowers with quills, it's very difficult and wasn't much done.
Now here is an example of some Cree-style loomwork done with glass seed beads at our very own costuming department at Fort Edmonton:
For more information on the deer hide jacket that this will become a part of, see this blog post from the park. Regardless, you can definitely see the resemblance in styles. It's very geometric, and could easily be reproduced in quills. Note, however, the presence of sky blue beads. In fact, fully half of the beads sold at the trade store at Fort Edmonton in the 1840s were reported to be sky blue and white beads, although the other fifty percent were made up of quite literally every colour of the rainbow, in both clear and opaque beads.
Then, in the 1830s onwards, in the Red River region, you get a pair of French catholic nuns who open up a school there. Now, Red River (near modern Winnipeg in Manitoba) was a settlement at which many old Hudson's Bay Company employees - and their native country wives, mostly Cree and Métis (or mixed-blood) women of Cree descent - retired. Thus, many of the girls who went to such schools were Cree (or Cree speaking) and they learned from these nuns floral silk embroidery, which became very popular amongst these peoples.
These two examples are both from the Royal Alberta. The first (regrettably blurry) photograph is a detail of a Métis example (a man's winter outfit, with jacket and gauntlet-like gloves, if I recall correctly). The second photograph isn't Cree, but isn't atypical of the Cree and Métis objects in this style, aside from the fact that it's made of caribou hide. The photo shows Athapaskan baby moccasins (from further north) and the child's mittens are labelled "Subarctic. c. 1873 - 1879". You can definitely see the French influence in these.
Of course, the Métis and the Cree were inspired by these techniques, and started to do floral embroidery, but with beadwork instead. Now is a good time to mention that flowers were worn by both genders.
An embroidered strap for tying a baby close to the mother's body for transport. Royal Alberta Museum.
Métis man's vest. Royal Alberta Museum.
Octopus bag (for tobacco and fire starting tools). Costuming department at Fort Edmonton.
Of course, the Cree and the Blackfoot are considered traditional enemies, so if the Cree do one thing, the Blackfoot tend to do the exact opposite, so the Blackfoot still TEND towards more geometric patterns. This isn't a hard and fast rule, especially around the time we portray at Fort Edmonton (1846). For instance, the mocassins on the far right of this photograph of the wall of the Great Hall of Rowand House (representing gifts given to John Rowand, the Chief Factor, during trading ceremonies with the Cree and the Blackfoot), could be of either tribe. The gloves on the left are probably Cree or Métis, as is the saddle towards the middle.
The two square items, however, are leggings (wrapping around the bottom of one's legs, beneath the knee). Detailed below, I would say that they are probably Blackfoot in design, not just because of the geometric patterns, but also the colouration: the Blackfoot favoured blacks and reds in their decorative elements. Again, that is a deduction, not a definite identification.
Contrast them, however, with this pillow cover from the next floor up in Rowand House. We represent this beadwork as being done by the Rowand daughters and by Mrs. Louise Rowand (née Umfreville (sp? - she may have also gone by Lisette). Although the daughters are only one quarter Cree, as their mother was also Métis, Louise was raised by her mother's people from age three onwards. The only surviving correspondence written by the daughters are in Cree syllabics, and their first language was more than likely Cree. So on the one hand, they have the strong aboriginal tradition through their mother, but on the other they would have striven to European ideals of beauty and accomplishments (as much as is possible by half-breed women in the far west). Hence, embroidery. (Also, probably boredom: they had very few people of class with which to associate, and so likely had little company but amongst the family itself.)
Another, with a portrait of John Rowand (painted in the 1970s after a photograph from the early 1850s):
A beautifully embroidered tea cozy... that I wish I had a more detailed photograph of:
BUT ENOUGH ABOUT EDMONTON HOUSE! I can go on and on about it (and I believe I just have). One more fascinating word on decorative elements amongst the Cree and other tribes: they often used trade goods in ways that Europeans never expected. Big bells too expensive for decorating your horse? A string of metal forks makes a very similarly pleasing noise. Check out this photograph from the Royal Alberta Museum of an older man who was such a skillful hunter that he could afford so many muskets... and then removed the metal dragon decoration from the wooden stock to decorate his capote with them. That would have definitely made a statement about his prowess as a hunter.
Here's another beautiful piece from the Royal Alberta with a fringe decorated with thimbles, of all things! I'm willing to bet that it has a lovely weight to it and jingles cheerfully as the wearer walks.
Detail.
Oh, and one more thing before I go! Almost everything you've seen up there is meant to be viewed by someone observing someone else wearing them, right? Fun fact about the beadwork on moccasins: they're designed to be viewed by the person wearing them. That's with the stems of flowers on them, for instance, will always be nearer the ankle than the toe. To illustrate, here is a (blurry iPod touch) photo of the pair of lovely moccasins I wear as Nancy Harriott:
A few later pairs from the Antique Mall:
All right, I'm pretty sure I'm done for now. Maybe? Possibly? Maybe I'll just go and find one more photo--
Poor quality image of quillwork on the loom, taken by myself at the Royal Alberta Museum.
For reference for those who may live outside of North America and/or city dwellers who have never seen one before, this is the animal that I'm talking about:
Porcupine quills are very versatile and easily dyed. Illustrated, again, by the wonderful Royal Alberta Museum:
Still, as you can imagine, they're very time-consuming to work with. First you have to find the porcupine, then kill it, pluck it (or hang it up above a blanket, which catches the quills when they fall as the animal rots), dye the quills, then soak them, THEN work with them. So as you can imagine, when European glass beads arrived, it caused an explosion in new art in the region. But first, a more traditional example of quillwork:
You can see the segments of the quills as they're wrapped around. Very geometric, yes? The quills are still very versatile, and you can get many relatively vibrant natural dyes, especially yellows, reds, browns, greens, and even purples (from the blueberry), but not, for instance, sky blue... or, at least, not in the Edmonton region.
Once you started to get European beads arriving, many of the traditional patterns were carried over from quillwork. (Side note: because of existing trade networks, European trade goods were traded ahead of Europeans themselves. Thus, when the Hudson's Bay Company set up in the region of the Saskatchewan rivers, the Cree were already familiar with beads, blankets, metal pots, etc., through other Cree tribes acting as middlemen.) While it's possible to do, say, flowers with quills, it's very difficult and wasn't much done.
Now here is an example of some Cree-style loomwork done with glass seed beads at our very own costuming department at Fort Edmonton:
For more information on the deer hide jacket that this will become a part of, see this blog post from the park. Regardless, you can definitely see the resemblance in styles. It's very geometric, and could easily be reproduced in quills. Note, however, the presence of sky blue beads. In fact, fully half of the beads sold at the trade store at Fort Edmonton in the 1840s were reported to be sky blue and white beads, although the other fifty percent were made up of quite literally every colour of the rainbow, in both clear and opaque beads.
Then, in the 1830s onwards, in the Red River region, you get a pair of French catholic nuns who open up a school there. Now, Red River (near modern Winnipeg in Manitoba) was a settlement at which many old Hudson's Bay Company employees - and their native country wives, mostly Cree and Métis (or mixed-blood) women of Cree descent - retired. Thus, many of the girls who went to such schools were Cree (or Cree speaking) and they learned from these nuns floral silk embroidery, which became very popular amongst these peoples.
These two examples are both from the Royal Alberta. The first (regrettably blurry) photograph is a detail of a Métis example (a man's winter outfit, with jacket and gauntlet-like gloves, if I recall correctly). The second photograph isn't Cree, but isn't atypical of the Cree and Métis objects in this style, aside from the fact that it's made of caribou hide. The photo shows Athapaskan baby moccasins (from further north) and the child's mittens are labelled "Subarctic. c. 1873 - 1879". You can definitely see the French influence in these.
Of course, the Métis and the Cree were inspired by these techniques, and started to do floral embroidery, but with beadwork instead. Now is a good time to mention that flowers were worn by both genders.
An embroidered strap for tying a baby close to the mother's body for transport. Royal Alberta Museum.
Métis man's vest. Royal Alberta Museum.
Octopus bag (for tobacco and fire starting tools). Costuming department at Fort Edmonton.
Of course, the Cree and the Blackfoot are considered traditional enemies, so if the Cree do one thing, the Blackfoot tend to do the exact opposite, so the Blackfoot still TEND towards more geometric patterns. This isn't a hard and fast rule, especially around the time we portray at Fort Edmonton (1846). For instance, the mocassins on the far right of this photograph of the wall of the Great Hall of Rowand House (representing gifts given to John Rowand, the Chief Factor, during trading ceremonies with the Cree and the Blackfoot), could be of either tribe. The gloves on the left are probably Cree or Métis, as is the saddle towards the middle.
The two square items, however, are leggings (wrapping around the bottom of one's legs, beneath the knee). Detailed below, I would say that they are probably Blackfoot in design, not just because of the geometric patterns, but also the colouration: the Blackfoot favoured blacks and reds in their decorative elements. Again, that is a deduction, not a definite identification.
Contrast them, however, with this pillow cover from the next floor up in Rowand House. We represent this beadwork as being done by the Rowand daughters and by Mrs. Louise Rowand (née Umfreville (sp? - she may have also gone by Lisette). Although the daughters are only one quarter Cree, as their mother was also Métis, Louise was raised by her mother's people from age three onwards. The only surviving correspondence written by the daughters are in Cree syllabics, and their first language was more than likely Cree. So on the one hand, they have the strong aboriginal tradition through their mother, but on the other they would have striven to European ideals of beauty and accomplishments (as much as is possible by half-breed women in the far west). Hence, embroidery. (Also, probably boredom: they had very few people of class with which to associate, and so likely had little company but amongst the family itself.)
Another, with a portrait of John Rowand (painted in the 1970s after a photograph from the early 1850s):
A beautifully embroidered tea cozy... that I wish I had a more detailed photograph of:
BUT ENOUGH ABOUT EDMONTON HOUSE! I can go on and on about it (and I believe I just have). One more fascinating word on decorative elements amongst the Cree and other tribes: they often used trade goods in ways that Europeans never expected. Big bells too expensive for decorating your horse? A string of metal forks makes a very similarly pleasing noise. Check out this photograph from the Royal Alberta Museum of an older man who was such a skillful hunter that he could afford so many muskets... and then removed the metal dragon decoration from the wooden stock to decorate his capote with them. That would have definitely made a statement about his prowess as a hunter.
Here's another beautiful piece from the Royal Alberta with a fringe decorated with thimbles, of all things! I'm willing to bet that it has a lovely weight to it and jingles cheerfully as the wearer walks.
Detail.
Oh, and one more thing before I go! Almost everything you've seen up there is meant to be viewed by someone observing someone else wearing them, right? Fun fact about the beadwork on moccasins: they're designed to be viewed by the person wearing them. That's with the stems of flowers on them, for instance, will always be nearer the ankle than the toe. To illustrate, here is a (blurry iPod touch) photo of the pair of lovely moccasins I wear as Nancy Harriott:
A few later pairs from the Antique Mall:
All right, I'm pretty sure I'm done for now. Maybe? Possibly? Maybe I'll just go and find one more photo--