Blackfeet Beaded Hide Vest
late 19th century

thread-sewn softly tanned hide beaded in colors of light blue, greasy yellow, red white-heart, pink, pea green, and translucent green; studded with tacks and brass buttons

length 22 inches x chest 17 inches

The vest... shows the floral tradition that developed across Canada west to the Pacific coast and north to the Subarctic. This style originated in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries in the East where French nuns and settlers taught fancy embroidery and weaving to the Hurons and disaffected Iroquois. These people migrated west.   Many Iroquois men worked in the Rocky Mountain fur trade.   In the 1820's, some Iroquois women were captured by the Blackfeet and lived with them. Thus the Iroquois spread their adopted art style across the continent. This vest probably dates to the 1890's and has an interesting decorative pattern of iron tacks that are clinched on the back to hold them in place (Hanson, 1994: 55).

Published:
Spirits in the Art (Hanson 1994: 55, plate 54)