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Article: From the North American Subarctic.(Native American beadworks)
- Article from:
- Whispering Wind
- Article date:
- January 1, 2009
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2009 Whispering Wind. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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The idea of beadwork applied to a substrate of animal fur might seem like a strange one. But to certain indigenous peoples of the Canadian and Alaskan Subarctic regions, this was a unique specialty, relatively little known to collectors and students of Native American material culture.
In spite of the apparent technical awkwardness one would imagine in working with beads on such a surface, seal skins were of course a readily available resource to Native American tribes in the Subarctic and Arctic region. To many of these scattered tribal groups, such a commodity tended to be gratefully accepted as a gift from the Creator and used regularly for making clothing and ...