Yellow, blue and white beadwork on buckskin.
Moccasins protect feet from ants and snakes while allowing the wearer to move quietly and feel the ground. This single moccasin is for a child.
How is it used?
Moccasins are a type of shoe which were worn by the first Americans known as Native Americans. Today they are mostly only worn as part of the traditional dress for traditional ceremonies such as a powwow. Moccasins are usually made of deerskin or another animal leather such as Bison hide. These moccasins have soft soles that allow the wearer to feel and grip the ground. Moccasins were made in all sorts of designs for different purposes. For instance some had hard soles for rocky ground or high legs to protect against sharp bushes whilst others had fur left on the inside for warmth in the winter. People would have owned several different pairs.
Who is it used by and why them?
This child's moccasin is probably from the Dakota tribe (called Sioux by Europeans) of the Northern Plains. Each tribe made and decorated their clothing differently and according to the animal and plant materials or dyes most available in their local area. European traders and settlers bought glass beads to America which reached the plains in the early part of the1800's. They became very popular as decoration for moccasins and clothing replacing the more fiddly sections of dyed porcupine quills or bird feather quills which were used as beads.
Hunters, traders, and settlers began to wear the Native American moccasins because of their practical and comfortable design. Sheep shearers in New Zealand and Australia have worn moccasins because they grip well to wooden floors and soak up the sweat of the wearer.
It is said that the shape of the hard soled moccasins were so distinctive to each different tribe that it was even possible to tell what tribe a moccasin shoeprint came from.
Makasin is the original term used in the Algonquian Indian language 'Powhatan'. The Europeans came into contact with the Algonquians first and so they mistakenly named all hide footwear as moccasins. Each tribe, however, has their own word for them in their own language.
