Iroquois/Oneida Beaded Glengarry Bonnet

[revdpatience]

I'm intrigued to discover a fascinating crossover between Scottish heritage and Native American beadwork.

See the article here for a bit of the story. Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) women in western New York did a brisk business in souvenir beadwork for Victorian tourists to Niagara Falls, adorning Glengarry bonnets and smoking hats for men, bags and purses for women.

Here's a photo, from this website, of three typical examples.

10_glengarryhats.jpg

As someone of Scottish descent (Patience and McColl) who is serving as Vicar of Church of the Holy Apostles on the Oneida Indian Reservation, I'm seriously considering commissioning a local artist to make me a beaded Glengarry bonnet.

My Patience grandfather came to Florida (by way of Australia) around 1916, and my McColl relatives came directly from Glasgow to Chicago a few years before that. So none of my relatives would have been the Highlanders known to the Iroquois in New York.

Also interesting is that elements of this style of raised beadwork appeared in New York after the Oneida had migrated to Wisconsin in the 1820s, so it was rediscovered more recently by Oneida artists here (and has now become their preferred style).