Re: beadwork...A question

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: : : : Hi, I am an Elementary education student who is teaching first graders about Native American beadwork in 45 minutes.  I have searched the web looking for clues and not finding much,I'm not real real sure what I seeking but nothing has appealed to me so far. I have been instructed to ad-lib by coloring macaroni and having them construct their own necklace in class.  But I do not know "WHY?"  Why did and do Native Americans make these necklaces?  Excuse me for being ignorant.  I am just looking for a simple way to explain this to small people and hope that they will find value and meaning to it (within 45 min)  I'd appreciate your help.  Thanks, Jamie
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: : :  When the Europeans came to this land, they found a stone age people. Not cave men, but a people of culture and low in technology. They wore leather and furs and were somewhat limited in their self expression so they made beads from shells, bones, wood, seeds and dried berries. Some had the skiil the make them from clay and bake them hard like pottery. The colorful designs done on early cloths was not beadwork but paint, porcupine quill work and moose hair embroidery. One of the first things they got from these new people in their lands were colorful glass beads. They were not small, but big, and lots of them in any color you can imagine. Indian beadwork as we know it today did not become a part of their culture till the middle 1800`s and most of that came from the reservations of the late 1800`s and most of your historical reenactors do not think of this as traditional because it was mostly done for Hollywood and the tourist trade. 
: : :  I hope this helps. You may want to try www.NativeTech.com If this is not right, maybe someone else on the board will have the link.

: : : Clabert Menard

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: : Hi, Clabert,

: : This information about ornamentation is fascinating!  Have you ever seen any examples of moose hair embroidery or the painted clothing?  Also, is moose hair embroidery still done today?  

: : Dana S.
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: Dana S.
:  Yes I have seen moose hair embroidery in a museum in New Hampshire back in June when I was up there for the Fort Ticonderoga reenactment. I stayed 3 extra days in New England visiting with friends. Just think, the longest hairs are only 3 inches long so there was a lot of stopping and starting. But to look at it you would think it was done with the finest silk threads. It was truely beautiful.
:  I`ve seen paintings of painted cloths and some painted buckskins from the middle to late 1800`s, but none of the earlier stuff. A lot of early, unknown of stuff, is coming out of England and Germany because a lot of the wealthy upperclass that came over here very early in our history, picked up and brought back hundreds of items that are now coming to light. Most of these were in private collections that were forgotten. But I personally, still havn`t seen any very early, painted clothing.

: Clabert  


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