Wabanaki Beadwork 1850-20 2000 Part 4 by Frederick Matthew Wiseman From The Collections of the Wôbanakik Heritage Center A Publication of the Great C ouncil Fire Project Haven Project Publication Wabanaki Series 2012 : 6 Copyright 2012
The Niagara Style. Wabanaki/Iroquois Late 19th/early 20th century. Introduction Wabanaki entrepreneurs sold huge quantities of trinkets adorned with Niagara style beadwork along with their Iroquois sisters at tourist destinations from Cape Breton Island (Figure 34)to the Great Lakes. Figure 34. Real photo postcard, Halifax, NS, ca. 1907. Please note the Niagara style beaded "cushions for sale. The largish, transparent polychrome beads are placed over cut paper patterns attached to a piece of velvet. The beadwork is raised, known as the "hump stitch" (by the Tuscarora), by threading more beads on the thread than are necessary - - so the beads "arch up." Thus the Niagara technique creates three- dimensional shapes. Niagara beadwork also uses glass tubular beads called sprengperlen, which were made in Bohemia until 1917 when production stopped due to war.
Figure 35. Stan Panadis' family of Odanak Abenaki Basket sellers, Highgate Springs, VT ca. 1920. In addition to baskets, they were documented as having sold Niagara- style cushions and tiny birch bark canoes. Dubbed the "Niagara style" due to its retail epicenter at Niagara Falls, the style has, until recently, been uninteresting to scholars who consider it decadent, uninteresting and "Iroquois." Thus we do not yet have the knowledge to separate Wabanaki beadwork from that of other nations. However, we do have a few items that were sold or possessed by Wabanakis either 'in the flesh," or on real photo postcards. Thus we can begin to at least outline the fact that Wabanakis both sold and used the Niagara style. Figure 36. Typical inexpensive "Iroquois" Niagara style beaded whimsy/cushions. Sold by Stan Panadis' family of Odanak Abenaki Basket sellers, Highgate Springs, VT in 1915. Descended in local Swanton, VT family. Note the "Wabanaki leaf" on the left cushion, but with prominent midrib executed in contrasting color.
Today, most people associate the Niagara style of beadwork with the huge numbers of beaded tourist items that flooded the Northeast. However, many extant turn of the 20th century "Maine Indian" real photo postcards that are about in the ephemera trade, show Penobscots and Passamaquoddies dressed in cut- cloth fringe clothing adorned with Niagara style beadwork. In analyzing the post card in Figure 36 under magnification, it was discovered that, both men have Niagara style beadwork on collars and cuffs, the man in the rear of the canoe sporting a coat identical to the jacket in Figure 41; often thought to be Improved Order of Redmen lodge regalia. Figure 37. Real photo postcard of Penobscot Indians in 1920, wearing cut cloth clothing Figure 38. Woman's "Princess crown" in the Niagara Style ca. 1910 Wabanaki leaves, but bicolor with prominent veins Worn by Vermont basket makers in the 1920's.
In addition, we have been fortunate in Vermont to recover several whole pieces of attire and headgear (as well as some fragments) worn by early 20th century basket sellers who used the clothing to reinforce a native identity to their customers. Unlike the Order of Redmen clothing - - which was carefully stored between lodge meetings - - these items show significant staining, use- wear and expedient repairs from being worn in field situations. Bergevin notes that "Figure 38 is in a style often seen in beadwork produced for Lodges and different Orders; I think this was being done in many locations as a commercial enterprise." (Bergevin e- mail, June 10, 2012). But they were used by Abenakis and are therefore part of Abenaki culture. Figure 39. Detail, Turkey Feather headdress in a simplified derivative of the Niagara Style. Star designs with central "padre" bead surrounded by rays of sprengperlen. ca. 1910 Worn by Vermont basket makers in the 1920's. Figure 40. Man's decorative shirt panel in the Niagara Style ca. 1910 Wabanaki leaves, but with prominent veins. Often seen on Improved Order of Redmen shirts. Worn by Swanton, Vermont basket makers in the 1920's. ex. Ben Gravel collection
Figure 41. Men s Jacket. 1920. Handmade red velvet panels decorated with Niagara- style beadwork Essex Junction, VT Very worn and stained from use in the field by Abenaki basket sellers who used it until the 1930's. In addition to use by Native people these were commercially made and then hand beaded by Native people for the lodge regalia of the Improved Order of Redmen Society.
The Pan- Indian Style. Wabanaki ca. 1920-late 20th century. Phase 1: Late/transitional Cut cloth Fringe clothing In the early 20th century the stereotype of the war- bonneted Plains warrior and his bead and buckskinned "Indian Princess" permeated Euroamerican culture. Although the Niagara style was loosely based on this stereotype, it was still regionally distinctive, but by the 1920's Wabanaki bead workers were studying published illustrations of Pan Indian attire and had become adept at appropriating western symbols and techniques to their own purpose. Wabanakis quickly abandoned their previous Niagara style clothing and substituted this newer "Pan- Indian" style so as to appear more "authentic" to customers and audiences. Much of this newer type of beadwork was made by the technique of loom beading a panel and then sewing the panel to the clothing, rather than the beads being sewn directly to the cloth. Figure 42. Passamaquoddy chief with early "Pan- Indian" style clothing. Note the cut cloth fringe on the pants. Ca. 1920
Typically this early Pan- Indian style was an interpretation of Western styles rather than a copy, although the beadwork was often technologically (i.e. adoption of lazy stitch etc.) and stylistically close to western originals. For example, in the headdress in Figure 43, the feathers are wrapped with a thin cotton, the drops are wool felt - - not at all true to Western prototypes. However the beadwork mimics the typical Plains white, lazy- stitched headband with polychrome mountain or tepee design. Figure 43. Detail, Turkey Feather headdress brow band in the Pan- Indian Style, complete with the "lazy stitch" technique. Similar to the headdress worn by Chief Lewey. ca. 1920 Used by Vermont basket makers in the 1920's and 1930's. One geometric style seen many times on Penobscot beaded panels are diamonds repeated over and over again with corners almost touching. This can be seen in the horizontal loom- beaded panel on Chief Lewey's fringed shirt in Figure 42. Phase 2: Academic pan Indian beadwork By the 1930's the Wabanakis were becoming very adept at expressing their Native Identity through the use of Plains Indian- Inspired loomed beadwork and clothing. I call this the "academic" phase; in that this beadwork was learned from authoritative and detailed data. Due to the promotion of Plains- style craftwork in books publicizing scouting, camping skills and hobbies, Native people were able to get much more detailed and precise instructions on how to properly do Plains style beadwork, and the suggested designs were much more detailed than the earlier photographs that Wabanakis had to use to craft the earlier Pan- Indian attire.
Figure 44. Detail, Vermont Abenaki man in Later pan- Indian attire ca. 1940 Figure 45. Penobscot Indians sporting Pan- Indian Style beadwork Ca. 1930. Man on right still sports the older floral beadwork on a cut- cloth fringe collar. Some examples from New England and the Maritimes seem so well- crafted and true to western construction, that some may be actual imports, such as the headband shown in Figure 46.
Figure 46. Woman's Headband" in the Pan- Indian Style ca. 1900-1910 Used by Connecticut River Abenaki "medicine show" Indians in the 1920's. However, most items of personal adornment tend to be rather simple in construction, as can be documented repeatedly in the "real- photo" postcards of Wabanaki people sold by the thousands to tourists visiting the Far Northeast. This Pan- Indian fashion persisted well into the second half of the 20th century, when most Wabanakis had completely forgotten their older Niagara style (not to mention the mid or late 19th century styles!!). Figure 47. Woman's Headband" in the Pan- Indian Style ca. 1960 Made by the Lapan family of Swanton, VT in the 1950's. It is interesting that as the Wabanakis began to reassert their own cultural traditions such as dance and song, in the various revivals of the 1970's and 1980's, they used the Pan- Indian clothing/beadwork styles to portray their "Indian- ness," both to themselves and to their audiences.
Figure 48. Passamaquoddy Indians sporting Pan- Indian Style beadwork Ca. 1970 during an exhibition wedding dance at the beginning of the Passamaquoddy cultural reawakening. Pioneer cultural engineer Joseph Nicolas to the right..