SwANTON] mODIANS OF THE SOUTHEASTEiRN UNITED STATES 487 



and in Creek kona ha'go ("bead-made"). The Choctaw claim that 

 they formerly made wooden beads as big as acorns, and that they 

 strung together chinquapin nuts, which they colored with the same 

 dyes that they used in basketry. They also used the seeds of the 

 red haw, but these would break up after they had been worn at one 

 or two social gatherings. The berries of the Oocculus carolinus were 

 used for a while, the same berries that were employed in poisoning 

 fish, but they subsequently gave them up lest they poison the cattle 

 or chickens (Swanton, 1931 a, p. 43) . 



Speck gives the following account of work with European beads 

 as practiced in later times by the Yuchi : 



Like many other Indian tribes the Yuchi adopted the practice of decorating 

 parts of their clothing with glass beads which they obtained from the whites. 

 Beadwork, however, never reached the development with them that it did in 

 other regions. What there was of this practice was entirely in the hands of 

 the women. There were two ways of using the beads for decoration. One of 

 these was to sew them onto strips of cloth or leather, making embroidered 

 designs in outline, or filling in the space enclosed by the outline to make a 

 solidly covered surface. The other way was to string the beads on the warp 

 threads while weaving a fabric, so that the design produced by arranging the 

 colors would appear on both sides of the woven piece. For the warp and woof 

 horse hair came to be much in use. Objects decorated in the first fashion 

 were moccasins, legging flaps, breechcloth ends, garter bands, belt sashes and 

 girdles, tobacco pouches and shoulder straps. The more complex woven bead- 

 work was used chiefly for hair ornaments and neckbands. 



The designs which appear in beadwork upon these articles of clothing are 

 mostly conventional and . some are symbolical with various traditional inter- 

 pretations. ... It should be observed here, however, that there is some rea- 

 son to suspect that the beadwork of this tribe has been influenced by that 

 of neighboring groups where beadwork is a matter of more prominence. The 

 removal of the Yuchi and other southeastern tribes from their old homes in 

 Georgia and Alabama to the West threw them into the range of foreign in- 

 fluence which must have modified some characteristics of their culture. ( Speck, 

 1909, p. 37.) 



Skinner supplies us with a short note regarding beadwork among 

 the Seminole observed in 1910 : 



Beads are woven Into belts, fobs, and garters. None sewn on skin or cloth 

 were seen. The belts are of two kinds — those worn around the waist, which 

 are furnished with a set of long, trailing tassels at the ends and middle, and 

 those worn over the shoulders, which have tassels only at the ends. They are 

 woven either entirely of beads on a thread foundation, or largely of yarn with 

 a few beads mixed in. The designs are often symbolic, but the only meanings 

 that could be obtained were: (1) diamond-back rattlesnake, (2) "ground" 

 rattlesnake, (3) everglade terrapin, (4) terrapin spear-point. The beads are 

 woven on small plain heddles, made of split palmetto ribs. The beaded gar- 

 ters are similar to those of the more northerly tribes and are worn bound 

 around the outside of the leggings below the knee. A photograph of one pair 

 was seen in possession of Charlie Tigertail, but no others were heard of. 

 (Skinner, 1913. pp. 71-72.) 



