Plains Indian Leggings
For this entry of the Artifact Blog, we are looking at a pair of Plains Indian leggings from around the 1870s! They are featured in our co-exhibition with Crystal Bridges, Companion Species: We Are All Related. Find them on display at MONAH in the exhibition until May 31, 2021!
The Plains Indians were a mix of peoples living in the United States and Canada's Great Plains. They were among the last of the North American Indigenous people to resist colonialization, some bands fighting until the 1880s! Traditional Northern Plains men would have worn leggings reaching the hips, like these on display, regularly. Women wore leggings only up to the knee.
These beautifully pigmented men's leather leggings feature greenish-blue leather fringes down the outside seams, seemingly attached with a beautiful strip of geometric blue, white, and yellow beading. This beading frames the ankle and also connects a larger strip of white, red, and green geometric beading running down both legs. While we don't know much about the man's identity with these leggings, we can still tell a lot about how these were constructed by looking at these different decorative elements!
These leggings are an example of new creative activity resulting from the reservation era (the 1870s-1920s). The traditional Plains people were nomadic and only produced necessary items for survival; thus, their artwork concentrated on functional and transportable items. Artists used natural materials like paints from minerals and porcupine quills in place of glass beads. Artwork and craftsmanship were always valued together for people on the move. Traditional geometric patterning represented part of their culture. For example, triangle shapes were symbols of tipis or mountains.
These traditional techniques and lifestyles changed with European contact and trade. The minerals for paints couldn't compete with the colors of manufactured pigments. The quills that once decorated their crafts were replaced by glass beads as prestige items. While these new materials replaced traditional ones, they were used in combination with them to create new techniques and intricate designs on occasion. During the reservation era, Native Americans had better access to these materials to create new crafts. The leggings here are made from leather, a traditional material; the pigment is either green trade paint or a copper-based mineral paint, alongside the new bead materials. While the Plains Indians were forced onto reservations, having to give up their nomadic lifestyle also meant they had more time. This new time on their hands allowed for more focus on their artistic creations, allowing more elaborate designs and techniques.
Blog by Jazlyn Sanderson
References:
Distribution of North American Plains Indians. Encyclopædia Britannica. Accessed January 28, 2021, https://www.britannica.com/topic/Plains-Indian/images-videos#/media/1/462761/330
Pauls, E. Prine. "Plains Indian." Encyclopedia Britannica, November 12, 2020. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Plains-Indian.
Buffalo Bill Center of the West. "Plains Indian Art of the Northern Plains: Traveling Trunk Curriculum." https://centerofthewest.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Plains-Indian-Art-Trunk-Curriculum.pdf