Vigo County Historical Society

Historical Treasure Article

Historic Treasure of the Week - October 21, 1984
By Georgia Jones
Vigo County Historical Society

Indians found nothing mystical about moccasin-making skills

Thomas Mail's book, "The Mystic Warriors of the Plains," quotes an Indian as saying, "Our feet in moccasins, moved as softly and freely as if they were bare and were beautiful in motion." The Indian was comparing them with white man's shoes, which were considered terrible for walking.

The moccasins pictured here from Indian Hall in the Historical Museum of the Wabash Valley, 1411 S. Sixth St., would surely have been beautiful in motion, with beadwork covering all of the moccasin except the tongue. Even the soles are beaded with hundreds of beads in shades of blue, green, red, pink and yellow.

Work and travel moccasins were mostly left plain, although some received a little beading or quilling. Moccasins intended for ceremonial and festival use were heavily decorated, with beading covering the entire top, ankle and tongue.

If the footwear was intended for weddings or burials, the soles were also beaded. The moccasins pictured here have beaded soles, so we can only assume they were made for one of these purposes. Since they are a small size, they probably were made for a child or woman.

Moccasins were made during the spring months from new hides which had been collected during the fall and winter.

Each tribe had its own footwear shape and method of decorating moccasins, so that a trained Indian scout could often tell a man's tribe by a glance. Sometimes a warrior wore a moccasin captured from another tribe to deceive his enemies.

Moccasins always fitted the feet they were made for and were decorated with designs that suited the line of the foot. Women could cut the moccasins without the use of measuring tools or patterns, and in the right proportions for children or grown people for generation after generation.

White people, amazed at the Indians' craft and design abilities, often asked them where they obtained their patterns for the many designs they used and how they transferred the patterns to skins. It was a question that puzzled Indian women, for their designs were simply in their own minds, they worked them out as they went along. "It is given to me" was about the only answer they gave when asked this question. Sometimes a woman would point to her forehead and smile. It was like asking a bird how it flew.