Bequest of W.S. Morton Mead

Small hide pouch with beaded bear claw design on one side and different design on reverse that has a puffy from with three triangles arranged aroud the outer rim.

Possibly Lakota although many Plains women used such bags. . Women would use this small bladder pouch. It has bugle and basket type beads. It is holding a mixture of dyed and natural porcupine, very nice quills for sewing.

Fragment, missing the ends. Was woven as a headband.Might not be Plains but Woodlands.

Probably Apache because of the use of the black beads. Some pieces of cotton thread in the back. Could be a paint bag.

Bequest of W.S. Morton Mead

These leggings are constructed with a long "tab" at each hip, near the top and above each outer seam. Below these tabs the outer seams on the rest of both leggings are decorated with one vertical strip of porcupine quillwork on each, outlined with beads in red, white-centered red, and black. The small seed bead and the cornalined'allepo (the white-centered) beads are not usually found on garments this early. Long fringes ornament the outer seams and the base of each strand is wrapped with red porcupine quills. The top and bottom edges of the leggings have short fringes. Shorter tabs are sewn on the bottom. This is generally referred to as bottom tabbed leggings, a style that permitted the tabs to stream along after the wearer when walking, a fashion that existed for only a brief time.

Compared to many other Plains leggings this pair is exceptionally short at 25 inches in length. Most others average over 42 inches on the inside seam and some up to 48 inches, with up to 72 inches on the outside seam. The skin on these leggings is the same light color and texture as matching shirt 50.67.7a. They look new and unworn. The leggings are decorated with a single flap, which are cut into short fringes. These fringes are wrapped with alternating red and blue quills. The top of the leggings have every other fringe cut out to create a toothed effect. Like the shirt, these leggings may be unfinished. There are no ties on the upper portion for looping to a belt or fastening at a thigh flap. However, both leggings have a dart sewn at this area, perhaps indicating that a tie was once attached. There is the possibility that these leggings were made in the Metis fashion, observed on several scouts,as knee high only. This would make them the same length as women's leggings. See Jarvis supplemental file in Arts of Americas office.

This dress shirt matches leggings 50.67.7b-c. A lack of ornamentation suggests it may be unfinished (compare this sparse ornamentation to 50.67.4). The shirt has no pierce work, loom-woven quillwork, or ornamentation on the cuffs. At the neck flap, however, there is an outline of blue beads and at intervals below, an additional two and three bead linear arrangement. There are simply decorated rosettes of concentric rings on either side with centers of plain white skin. Going outward from these centers are rings of quills: light blue; white; red; and a combination of blue and yellow. Following the quills is a ring of white skin, and an outer circle of blue beads. When cleaned in 1992, a fringe damaged by old insect damage became detached at the center of the proper left shoulder. The edges of the torn section were backed and reattached.

Decorated bags similar to this in size are sometimes referred to as "firebags" or "shot pouches" because they often held tobacco, flint and steel or a piece of touchwood for starting fires. This hide pouch combines elements of floral design and geometric patterns. Only one side of the pouch is decorated. The top of the pouch is quill embroidered with three simple foliate forms that contain alternating stems from which emerge bi-lobed leaves. The three plants grow from a crescent shape, a shape that may be read as a seed pod. Two quill woven strips that contain geometric forms are attached to the pouch. Both of these strips have white grounds with four major design elements on each, interspersed with small triangles and crosses. The top strip starts at the left with an eight-pointed star which is red at the center, then outlined in white on a brown field, outlined in turn in pink and the outer edge bordered in blue. The second element is also eight-pointed, as if a square and diamond are combined. At its center, a brown rectangle is surrounded by a larger rectangle of orange and red, then a white border, a blue border, then a pink border with projections at right and left, still another blue border, a white border, and finally, a brown border as the outer edge of the same form. The third element design is the same as the second and the fourth form is the same as the first. On the second, woven loomed quill strip, the first form on the left is an eight-pointed star with a brown and red checkered rectangle at center, surrounded by a white border on a blue field, surrounded in turn by a pink border, and then finally outlined in brown. The second form is irregular and may be described as a vertically oriented rectangle with a pronounced point emerging at right and left. At the center is a reddish strip, bordered and crossed horizontally in white, on a brown field that is surrounded by a blue border, then a pink border, a brown one, a white one, and then a final blue outline. The third element is the same as the second and the fourth is the same as the first. See supplemental Jarvis file in Arts of Americas' office.