HOFFMAN] 



BEADWOKK 



269 



The nioccasiu is fastened to the ankle by a buckskin thong passed 

 around the top through a number of holes, which permit it to slide 

 easily while being fastened. 



The garters above referred to are made by the women in such pat- 

 terns as they may be able to design or elaborate. There is a general 

 type of diamond and lozenge shape outlines, sometimes of solid colors, 

 though more frequently filled in by sharply contrasting tints. Frets, 

 vines, and meanders also are common. The accompanying illustrations 

 (plates xxv-xxix) will better convey an idea of the variety of patterns 

 in use by Menomini beadworkers. 



Many if not all of these designs used in bead working have been intro- 

 duced among the Menomini by intercourse with the Ojibwa, with whom 

 they have been friendly neigh- 

 bors from the earliest historic 

 times. This is shown not only 

 by the identical patterns exist- 

 ing among both tribes, but is 

 evident also from the frecpient 

 intertribal traffic, existing even 

 at this day. So late as 1891 a 

 specially appointed delegation 

 left lied Lake, Minnesota, to visit 

 all the Ojibwa and Menomini set- 

 tlements in southern Minnesota 

 and in Wisconsin, to gather 

 every available large specimen 

 of beadwork for traffic with the 

 Arikara and Hidatsa of North 

 Dakota, from whom the northern 

 Ojibwa obtain horses. Annual 

 visits were made by the Ojibwa 

 to these tribes, and the latter 

 would, in time, procure more 

 horses, in exchange for the bead- 

 work from the CrOWS Of Montana. F I0 .45-Fran ie holding unfimshed beadwork. 



In this manner the Ojibwa and Menomini beadwork gradually found 

 its way as far west as the SeUsh Indians, in northwestern Idaho, from 

 whom examples have been recovered. 



Recently some enterprising individuals have introduced machine- 

 made beadwork and disposed of it through the traders. The original 

 methods of making it, as pursued by the Indian women, is slow and 

 difficult, and in no instance do they appear to receive a fair compen- 

 sation for their labor. The work is usually done without the aid of 

 patterns or diagrams. There are three processes of embroidering 

 with beads, and as all the work, excepting that in which the beads 

 are sewed directly on cloth or buckskin, is made by a definite system, a 



