Leggings

Leggings

Leggings

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Date Made or Date Range: Pre-1820
Materials

Red and blue stroud with list (high quality) hemp, braided twine, calico. Beads sz 13 in white, clear rose, and salmon white heart. Stroud is HBC wool stroud in blue and red with corded selvage. List has three bars.

Techniques or Format

Hand stitched folded with grain with list at top with two tabs at the outside. Made by folding the fabric then stitching in a running stitch diagonally from top to bottom to taper. The seam allowance is cut with two pointed flaps reminiscent of dew claws. The edges are bound with blue (faded) wool tape on the red legging and red tape on the blue leg. The tape is outlined with a row of white, sz 13 couched seed beads. At the bottom of each leg are female Thunderbirds facing each other. The red leg is beaded with white beads, while the blue is lined with salmon white heart beads. The cords to hold them to the belt are commercial hemp with rolled strips of calico at ties attached to the selvage.

Motifs and Patterns

Female thunderbirds facing each other. CW. Diagonal cuts and usage of alternating colors used as a motif; possibly indicating thunder due to the presence of Thunderbirds. CH. Of note is that the thunderbirds are made of three rows of couched beads with the Blue leg having a single clear bead in the inner row of salmon white hearts and a single salmon white heart in a clear rose row.

Other Notes

Matched leggings of mirrored color scheme in red and blue. Made of high quality stroud with three bar list at he top used as a decorative element. Outer edges of leggings have tabs cut out that are reminiscent of dew claws. Beaded female Thunderbirds on the bottom edges, facing each other. The pair are nearly identical, with the blue tabs being slightly longer. CW and CH. L 27" x W 13.25" folded at top and W 7.5" at the bottom. Tabs: blue upper is L 5" and the lower is L 9." Red Upper is *** and lower is L 8.5". CW and CH.

Dimensions: 0 × 0 × 0 mm
Condition: Good condition. Some damage noted, fading in particular, but the overall condition was good to very good. CH.
Reasons for connecting this relative with particular times, materials, styles and uses

Based upon physical examination by CW.

Catalogue, Accession or Reference Number: 1899.011.0009
GKS Reference Number: 24871
Approximate Place of Origin

43.0703, -80.1184