74 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



Brooches 



About the beginning of the i8th century, Iroquois taste in orna- 

 ment took a decided turn. Glass and porcelain beads were still in 

 favor, but the brass and bronze ornaments began to give place to 

 silver. The change came gradually, but very decidedly, and in the 

 end affected all Indian tribes. Loskiel said: " The rich adorn their 

 heads with a number of silver trinkets of considerable weight. This 

 mode of finery is not so common among the Delawares as the 

 Iroquois, who, by studying dress and ornament more than any other 

 Indian nation, are allowed to dictate the fashion to the rest." 



By the middle of that century the Indians had everywhere become 

 critical in this matter. La Presentation (at Ogdensburg) was 

 settled in 1749, and reference is made to silver articles in the account 

 of the settlement in Lettres edifiantes et curieuses. The matter of 

 rival trade, as between New York and Canada, was as burning a 

 question then as now, and the latter had the same disadvantage of 

 position in winter, enhancing the price of goods. Toronto and 

 Niagara could have stopped, it is said, 4< all the savages, had the 

 stores been furnished with goods to their liking. There was a 

 wish to imitate the English in the trifles they sold the savages, such 

 as silver bracelets, etc. The Indians compared & weighed them, 

 as the storekeeper at Niagara stated, and the Choeguen (Oswego) 

 bracelets which were found as heavy, of a purer silver and more 

 elegant, did not cost them two beavers, whilst those at the King's 

 posts wanted to sell them for ten beavers. Thus we were discred- 

 ited, and this silver ware remained a pure loss in the King's stores. 

 . : n . To destroy the Trade the King's posts ought to have been 

 supplied with the same goods as Choeguen and at the same price." 

 O'Callaghan, p. 437 



William Smith published his History of New York in 1756. He 

 said of the Indians, " Many of them are fond of ornaments, and 

 their taste is singular. I have seen rings affixed, not only to their 

 ears, but to their noses. Bracelets of silver and brass round their 

 wrists, are very common." Smith, p. 69 



Heckewelder described the funeral of a woman in 1762: "Her 

 garments, all new, were set off with rows of silver brooches, one row 



