Cherokee Indian Art: Beadwork and
Faced with continuing loss of their lands and
the decline of hunting and fishing in the 19th
century, the Cherokee Indian Tribe and their
relatives, the Iroquois nations of New York
State and Canada, came up with a successful
survival strategy: they would sell tourists the
fancy Indian beadwork, wood carvings, and
beautiful baskets they had long done for
themselves. Tourists loved their Indian designs.
Cherokee Indian beadwork and basketry
existed before recorded history when beads
made from shells and bird bones were used
instead of the tiny glass cylinders first
brought to North America by European
explorers in the 16th century.
They used the teeth, bones, and claws of wild
animals to decorate their clothing. Dried
berries and gray Indian corn were also shaped
Cherokee Native Americans made moccasins,
bags, pincushions, needle cases, sport caps,
picture frames, match holders, clothing and
hanging baskets, which were brilliantly stitched
with tiny glass beads by women, using tribal
themes but also adapting to the Victorian
tastes of their buyers.
Early native Americans actually used wampum
designs as "documents" for record keeping in
the absence of a written Indian language.
They used local shell, stone, bone, horn, and
even Venetian glass beads, dating from the
1580's to the 1630's. This was called wampum.
Records show that glass beads were first
supplied to the Mohawks, one of the six
Iroquois nations, as early as 1616, and by the
18th century commercial beads were in
Before that, quill work, using dyed porcupine
quills, was a preferred form of decoration.
The stiffness of the quills made them more
suitable for geometric design.
Abundant plant life in the Cherokee regions
suggested the use of curvy forms with leaf
and floral patterns in their beadwork and
Significant tribal symbols relating to the
Cherokee cosmology are also prevalent in their
Among them is the Sky Dome, a half circle
resting on two parallel lines, with a pair of
simplified plant forms springing from the
dome's top. The dome signifies the arc of the
sky, the parallel lines the earth. The plant
forms represent the celestial tree of life
that stands at the center of the Native
American world, bearing the sun and the moon
aloft in its branches.
Symbols in Cherokee Indian Beadwork
Symbols enhanced by elaborate scrollwork,
was often used to adorn women's leggings.
Other Native American tribal motifs include
the sun in stylized form, the celestial tree
as a floral Indian design with fruits, the
mythological Native American turtle upon
which the earth was built and other animal
clan Indian figures.
|Below: Cherokee Native American bead
|Below: Cherokee Indian beadwork reported to
be woven by students in 1940 at the Cherokee
Female Seminary in Park Hill, Oklahoma.
|1920 tobacco bag
|Below: A Native American
1900 Cherokee vest with
|Above: Cherokee beaded pincushion, 1890
|The 18th century Indian bead shirt
(top/right) is an example of the use of
symbols. Notice the white Indian beads
on the edges of the garment, and a lacy
design of stylized flowers springing from
tiny triangles with a row of beaded
Indian curves simulating scalloping.
Notice that even today, Cherokee
beadwork has elements reflective of
the Victorian influences of the 1800's.
Their beading became fuller and more
florid, creating an embossed, bas-relief
effect and often covering most of the
background. A wider color range brought
in more dark and medium tones.
Examples abound in the form of pouches
and purses, pincushions, caps and such
made for tourists. For instance, in late
1890, they began copying a European
decorative art form used in creating the
Tuscarora beaded handbag.
It was and cut in a perky curvaceous
shape, and covered with floral elements
sophisticatedly worked in red, blue,
white, yellow and other colors, the whole
framed by a variety of neat white
Pincushions made to hold long hatpins and
sewing needles were one of the most
popular items sold by early beading
fabric were one of their specialties.
They would frequently use beads to
form a six-pointed star embroidered in
white beads with a black center
containing a white eagle bearing an
American flag on each wing.
Headgear took the form of heavily
beaded caps for sports, for smoking and
for general use. Of the sports caps,
reminiscent of the ubiquitous baseball
toppers that men wear today except
that they have shorter visors. They
usually were heavily encrusted with gray
floral beading on a dark gray ground.
Many Photos Courtesy of Denver Museum
Archive and Library of Congress