History
Moccasins are a flat shoe with no heel that are usually made with one piece of leather and can be adapted to the environment such as a soft or hard sole.
For Native Americans, quill work was considered as a privilege and sacred craft traditionally by women. To add, quill work is not only used in clothing but also used as decorative addition to adorn commonplace objects such as cups or tools.
After collecting the porcupine quills, the quills would then be dyed using locally sourced plants for example wild sunflowers to make the quills yellow. Eventually, through trade, aniline dyes became widely used in place of plants as this was easier and more efficient at producing brighter colours. Finally, following the introduction of glass beads around the mid 1800s, bead work became increasingly popular and was used more often than the time intensive traditional quill work.
Design
The moccasins have a geometric and colourful design with floral imagery on the tongue and a repeating triangular pattern adorning the sides. The emphasis on colour is reflected in the tassels which unfortunately have partially faded and in places fallen apart from the moccasin. Lastly, it was important to note that quill work typically revolves around a symbolic meaning or simply ornamental and artistic design yet, the practice of quill work remains a sacred process reiterating the cultural significance embedded in the design.
This object was audited and researched as part of the NLHF Data Hunters and Story Gatherers project.
