The Spectator., 1915-10-19
NOW TAKE UP BEADS
Indian Women Devote the Winter
 to Fancy Work.
Passing of Season of Feasts and Dane- ing Enables Squaws to Devote Time to Making Indian
 Trappings.

Thomas, Okla.-NOW that the Cheyenne social season has ended with the close of summer the women of the tribes have more leisure for making and decoration of moccasins and other Indian trappings. Their children are at school, their homes are stationary and dances and feasts infrequent
 Dealers in beadwork have learned that they get best results by supply ing the Indian woman with all her work when finished. In this way an expert beader will receive better pay than she might be able to do if she had to get, tan and cut hides for herself.
 The design for beadwork is often agreed upon beforehand, as we'll. In this way the Indian is saved from de- cision and the dealer can be sure he will get the designs and sizes which have been found to suit the markets. Moreover, this prevents the low in steps which are invariably found in moccasins made for Indian wear.
 The Indian has worn 'heelless foot gear for so many generations that his instep is not as high as that of most civilized men, and and the result is that. if left to themselves, the moe casin makers turn out footgear that few white people can wear.
 But for all this the pattern. making and beaded design are genuine Tn dian" in every respect, and have been carefully copied from old models The present system probably has done a great deal to preserve old Indian pat terms, which might have been for gotten or changed if left unstandard- ized.
 It is remarkable with what deftness and speed an expert can cover a pair of buckskin mOccasins. using only a thin strand of sinew and a sharp awl. The Indian woman has been adept at this work for years upon years, and her best work is easily distinguished from the cheap and irregular work of factories.
 The art work of Cheyenne women and Cheyenne men is quite different. The mans art Is realistic and is in tended to represent things as they are. He devoted his attention to painting tepees, shields and buffalo robes. and these pictures are never twice the same.
 The women, on the other hand, em- ploy unchanging geometrical designs. squares, circles. triangles and lines Towering lines and flower patterns | are utterly unknown to the women of the plains tribes, and whenever seen should be regarded with suspicion by the collector. as 1t Is more than prob able they came from Germany. In reading the designs on a mocca- sin one can usually say that the | triangles are tepees if they stand up- right round the sole. If not, and es- | pecially if they are pointed toward some other figure, they stand for ar rowheads.
 Every Indian design means some thing and sometimes the colors have ! a second significance. quite independ- ent of the design. A square with l triangles pointing toward it repre- sents a buffalo attack by hunters with arrows. Without the arrow | heads about 1t square is usually meant for a star. Diamonds stand | for lakes.
 Sometimes moccasns were made with a bunch of fringes a foot long at the heel. These were intended to smooth over the tracks by the wearer. so that anyone following him might l be unable to know who had passed. | Of couree they also were decorated. | especially when the wearer was | mounted.
 As time goes on and buckskin be. comes scarcer the makers of moo casins will have to turn more and | more to other kinds of leather. if they do not have to give up making them ! altogether