Object Story: Niagara Beadwork Hat

Object Story: Niagara Beadwork Hat - Body

Niagara Beadwork Hat

This hat was created by a Haudenosaunee (hoe-dee-no-SHOW-nee) craftsperson in the mid-nineteenth century. The Haudenosaunee is an alliance of six nations, the Mohawk, the Oneida, the Onondaga, the Cayuga, the Seneca, and the Tuscarora. These nations are more commonly known as the Iroquois Confederacy. They continue to live in territories and reservations in current-day New York, Wisconsin, Oklahoma, and North Carolina. Each of the six nations share many cultural similarities, but they all have distinct languages and cultural practices too.

The opening of the Erie Canal in the 1820s helped bring many people to the region where Haudenosaunee people lived, and this resulted in a booming tourist trade. This flowery, beaded cap was a one of many produced for sale to tourists in the Niagara Falls vacation destination in approximately 1870.

Expand image A Victorian lady purchasing souvenirs at Niagara Falls during the mid-nineteenth century.

Stereoview panel. Group of Tuscarora women selling beadwork at the falls. | Circa 1870. Photographer: George Barker, Niagara Falls, NY

Niagara beadwork hat

eye icon target icon info icon Black velvet cap in the shape of a pointed oval, with beadwork in blue, white, green, yellow, and red forming flowers and stems all over; made by a Haudenosaunee woman.

Unrecorded artist (Haudenosaunee (Iroquois)), Niagara beadwork hat, ca. 1870, beadwork on black cloth and velvet. Gift of Jonathan and Karin Fielding, 2016.25.5

Intricate Beadwork

There are thousands of small beads painstakingly sewn to the hat by hand. Beads have been an important element in Haudenosaunee life since before Europeans arrived in what is now known as America. Originally, beads and other decoration were made of materials like animal bones and teeth, seeds, rocks, and shells. When French, Dutch, and English people came to America, they brought with them beads made of glass as well as other useful materials like cloth thread and metal needles. Through trade with Europeans, the Haudenosaunee obtained these new supplies and incorporated them into their artistic traditions. 

Floral Design

Among Native American communities, flowers are important because of their connection to plants, which are meaningful because they were used in medicine, food, and religion. Floral designs would have also helped sell this hat to white tourists. Flowers were very popular with fashionable ladies in this time period (the Victorian Era) who assigned their own meanings, including femininity, to flowers.

"Glengarry Cap" Style

The shape and style of this hat originated in Scotland. Haudenosaunee craftspeople probably saw this kind of hat on Scottish soldiers stationed in what is now known as Canada. Queen Victoria’s children in England wore this same kind of hat, which helped to make it popular in both England and the United States.

As local cultures interact with each other through art, tourism, fashion, and other industries, this changes the way culture is produced and consumed. The Haudenosaunee bought beads from European traders as early as the sixteenth and seventeenth century and began to use them in their art. By the nineteenth century, they began to sell their work as souvenirs to the tourists who visited Niagara Falls and other areas in the region. There is no doubt that those sales affected how they chose to share their culture. Since being pushed from their homelands by white colonists, the Haudenosaunee had adapted to their circumstances. They depended on the sale of these souvenirs for survival. In turn, it became a way to share and maintain their traditions to the present day.

Watch this video "Haudenosaunee Beadwork: A History" from PBS, which explores raised beadwork and its importance to Haudenosaunee culture and identity.

Questions for Discussion

  • How is this beaded hat a reflection of culture? How might the hat reflect Haudenosaunee culture?
  • Consider the changing relationships between Indigenous groups like the Haudenosaunee and European settlers. How did the groups interact with each other? How did a change in one group affect others? For example, how did the arrival of tourists make a difference in the lives of Haudenosaunee groups living near Niagara Falls?
  • What might be some motivations to change and adapt cultural practices like art making? What might be some drawbacks?
  • Have students write a response to the object using one of the following prompts:
    • If you had an object like this, how would you know it was yours? What about that makes it important to you?
    • Where would you put this in your home? How would you display it? What else would go with it? Do you think you would use it or show it just for special occasions or all the time? Would you point it out to people?