Native American Beadwork Research Paper

Native American Beadwork: A Survey of History, Uses, and Techniques

Over the years Native Americans have become synonymous with many things, from casinos and gambling, the environmental movement, and even the stereotypical idea of an “Indian” most often depicted in film and television. Over time we have even begun to mass-produce and Americanize their art forms such as pottery, basket weaving, and even beadwork. We see these products at the country fair, in our malls, and sometimes even in magazines. This consumerist culture change has caused the history and skill behind these art forms to be forgotten. However, Native American beadwork is one of the oldest, and best-known, art forms in North America and it’s history and uses helped to shape the country as we know it today.

For Thousands of years before Europeans came to North America and made contact, Native Americans had been making, wearing and trading beads.

These beads were most often made of “shell, pearl, bone, teeth, or stone” (Curtis). Although they are rare, some beads have even been found in the American Southeast that were made from copper nuggets (Power 54). These types of beads tended to be large and bulky, meaning they were normally strung on necklaces or thongs as opposed to being used as a form of ornate decoration. These beads were also time-consuming to make. The Native’s lack of metal tools during this period meant that they had to construct their own implements out of stone or wood and use abrasives such as sand to shape and hollow out the beads

(“Native American Beadwork”). Although many forms of beads have been found at archeological sites over the past hundred years, the oldest known bead came from a site in Tule Springs, Nevada. This bead, which was constructed of a material known as white caliche or, a “sedimentary rock made from hardened calcium carbonate”, dates back to 11,000 B.C.

(Curtis).
The majority of beads that Native Americans used during this time period were made from materials local to their area. For example the Eastern Woodland people made beads from shell known as wampum, while other tribes in the Southeast mostly made beads from the naturally occurring stone in the area. However as time progressed Natives began to seek and import beads, and materials for making beads, from tribes in other areas (Curtis). This transformed beads into a form of trade, and political negotiation between tribes. For example in the Northwest Coastal area dentalium shell beads were used to settle disputes both inside and outside of the tribe (“Trade Beads”). This is also true for wampum beads and wampum belts of the Eastern Woodlands tribes. It is important to note that Wampum was an item used it trade but it was not a form of money (“Trade Beads”). The popularity of dentalium beads eventually spread and they were eventually traded throughout the Plains region for over 2,000 years (Curtis). Many times individuals would even be buried with these rare beads as s symbol of status (Power 54).
A common misconception about Native American beadwork is that before the arrival of Europeans Native Americans did not decorate their clothing. In fact peoples of the Northeastern United States and Midwest areas were decorating their clothing with porcupine quills long before the advent of beadwork (“Native American Beadwork”). This form of working, known as quillwork, was extremely time consuming. Each
porcupine quill must be softened in water, flattened by either running it between a person’s teeth or pressing it between two smooth rocks, dyed, and then applied to the fabric between two rows of stitching (Curtis). The dyes used in this process had to be made as well by boiling berries, roots, and flowers from trees (Shirt 5).
The first European explorers that came to North America brought glass beads and used them both for trading with natives and as gifts. It is documented that one of the first things that Christopher Columbus did when he landed on a small island in the Caribbean was to “present glass beads to the Arawak Indians” living there (Curtis). By the middle of the 16th century the Spanish were already trading beads into the area that is now known as New Mexico (“Native American Beadwork”). The natives soon spread these beads through their trade networks to even the most remote areas of the United States. For example trade networks eventually brought beads to the interior northwest tribes during the late 18th century (Grafe 42-45). Lewis and Clark also used beads for trade and negotiation as they traveled the Snake and Columbia Rivers down to the Pacific Ocean (Grafe 42-45). Beads also became a way for the Europeans to trade with the natives. For example fur traders could trade beads to the Natives in exchange for beaver pelts (Grafe 42-45).
Most of the beads that Europeans brought to North America in the beginning came from Venice, and Holland. Later beads from Poland and Czechoslovakia also became popular (“Trade Beads”). Venice had a “flourishing bead production industry” by the early 14th century (“Native American Beadwork”). These beads were much smaller than those that the natives were used to, and they came in consistent sizes. They also came in a variety of colors. Some of these colors, such as blue, were highly sough after
because the Natives could not easily make the color themselves (Shirt 5). The arrival of these small “seed beads” took beading from an art form that was used only sparingly to a decorative tradition that could be used to adorn entire surfaces. Because many tribes were nomadic the few possessions that they always kept, for example moccasins, teepees, and dresses started to become more and more adorned to add more aesthetic appeal to them (Curtis). There have been some artifacts from this era that were completely adorned. One dress that was recovered actually weighed fifty pounds (Curtis). There have even been moccasins found that are fully beaded, even in the soles.
As more and more Europeans came to North America the availability of glass beads increased while their price decreased. This change allowed them to become even more widely used by Native Americans (“Trade Beads”). Glass beads began to replace traditional quillwork designs because it was far lass time consuming because it required nearly no preparation work and rows of beads could be attached to a surface with only a few stitches (Curtis). This is especially true for tribes on the coast who were forced out of their ancestral lands, thus cutting them off from the shells that they had used to make their own beads (“Trade Beads”). The tradition of beading has continued to change and evolve even into the 21st century and is now an integral part of Native American culture.
Over time there have been many techniques developed for Native American beadwork. Beads can either be sewn to a background material, such as buckskin, or they can be weaved into a fabric on a loom (“Native American Beadwork”). When it comes to affixing beads to a surface there are two basic types, the overlaid stitch, and the lazy stitch. The overlaid stitch allows the artisan to create detailed work while also filling in large sections of background. In this process “First the beads are strung on a thread or
sinew. If a design is to be made with contrasting colors of beads, they must be placed in order. Then a second thread is used to fix the beaded strand to the material. The second strand is passed over every two or three beads. In most cases the outlines for a design are made with a single strand of beads and the remainder is filled in afterwards with beadwork” (“Native American Beadwork”). This type of stitching is normally used in floral designs created by the Eastern Woodlands tribes but over time it has spread to other tribes as they have adopted similar designs (Curtis).
The lazy stitch is an adaptation of the overlaid stitch but in this method “a row of beads is strung on a thread that is simply passed into the background material. No second thread is used to bind the beads to the surface. The thread is then strung once again with beads and passed back in the opposite direction” (“Native American Beadwork”). This takes less time than the overlaid stitch method. However the rows of beads hat are created causes a “rib-like” appearance. The lazy stitch method of beading is most commonly used by tribes west of the Mississippi river, also known as Mississippian tribes (Power 54). There have been variations of the lazy stitch that have been created over time but they are not used very widely and are only known by a few remaining tribes.
Another form of beadwork involves the use of a loom, also known as a bead loom. Looms can be large or small, and they can also be made from wood and even metal. Metal looms have become more popular over time because they are easier to tension without risking the loom threads being damaged. The most common technique for weaving on the loom is known as the “square weave.” This type of weave attaches beads in a way that resembles how many fabrics are made (“Native American Beadwork”) Both geometric and organic patters can be put into the beaded fabric. This
fabric can then be affixed to a backing material or it can be finished off and turned into bracelets, headbands, and even belts. Bead looms are another innovation, like glass beads, that can be attributed to the Europeans. Native Americans took the technology of the loom and applied it to their own techniques and traditions (“Trade Beads”).
It can be seen that Native American beadwork has changed drastically over the past few centuries thanks to the introduction of glass beads by Europeans and new technologies like the loom that have improved beading techniques. Although it has become a somewhat commercialized art that is now practiced outside of the tribes by everyday people, beadwork is still an integral part of many Native cultures that needs to be preserved as symbol of Native ethnicity.