Throughout its history, the various factions comprising the Sioux Nation have demonstrated a knack for celebrating their natural surroundings, animal spirits, and the Great Spirit, through ornate jewelry and intricately decorated clothing. These Native American Plains People have used bone (often called hairpipe), antler and glass beads to create patterns symbolizing their individual tribes and their spirituality, often telling entire stories through decorative patterns.
Bone
The Sioux often have been characterized by their strong sense of connection to the natural world and animals, as well as by their fierce warrior and horse-riding culture. The bones of animals they hunted for sustenance were not wasted. To honor the kill, bones of buffalo, birds and other game were fashioned into necklaces, chokers and ornate breastplates.
Holes could be drilled through long sections of bone, sometimes referred to as hairpipe, to string together chokers and breastplates that were both attractive and protective in battle. Thread often was made from sinew, the muscle tendons of animals.
Bone often was combined with colored glass and clay beads, brass, and other material obtained through trade. The art continues today among traditionalists and rendezvous and pow-wow enthusiasts.
Antlers and Horns
Beads, decorative disks, buttons and ornate decorations for ceremonial Sioux bonnets all can be gleaned from deer antlers and bison horns.
Deer antler can be sawed or chiseled across the antler tines into small disks. Holes can then be drilled or punched through with an awl to create antler buttons for beading or clothing. Horns often were hollowed out and dried before being incorporated into ceremonial headdresses.
Beading
Though not initially available in the Americas, indigenous people eventually obtained through trade with white settlers the colored glass beads, brass and copper beads, and trim that have defined their jewelry for generations. The Sioux were no different.
Buckskin shirts, leggings, the leather trim of ceremonial bonnets and leather pipe bags often were stitched with intricate beading patterns, some of which told stories of great hunts, battles and other events. The beads typically were stitched with sinew thread in small groupings to reflect larger patterns.
Headdresses
Beading detail on ceremonial bonnets, often called headdresses, is among the most ornate in Sioux tradition. Eagle feathers often were topped with horse hair, wrapped on the tips with red felt or other fabric, and stitched into a base leather cap with a long train using leather loops wrapped with sinew. Contrary to popular belief, these bonnets were mostly worn during ceremonial dance and other special events. The items were not typically worn when warriors rode off to battle.
Metal Jewelry
Metal jewelry also became a staple among the Sioux with the arrival of white settlers. Copper bracelets were common among the Sioux peoples, as were metal earrings and small shiny cones made from tin that could be used as decorative trim or as hangings from the fringe of medicine pouches and ceremonial leggings.
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