Mocassins

Engelse tekst
Comanche moccasins (TK: naap); hide, glass; l. 25.5 cm; ca. 1880.
On the southern Plains among the Comanches and Kiowas, and among the Apaches, moccasins often have a V-shaped insert as a vamp. The seams are frequently covered with leather fringe, as is the seam at the heel, and the insert if often painted red, yellow, or blue. In other cases the seams on the upper are covered with beadwork, resulting in a long and narrow V-shape, extending to the toes, sometimes reaching a beaded border along the seams where sole and upper are sewn together. This pattern of decoration was adopted by tribes on the central and northern Plains, irrespective of type of moccasin construction (Wissler 1916:110; cf. Ewers 1969:181,184; Hail 1980:113-114; Hanson 1994:66-68; Merrill et.al. 1997: ; Brasser 1998:53; Kavanagh 2001:891).
In this specimen of Comanche footwear a beaded border along the seam where upper and sole are sewn together is lacking, resulting in a simple beaded V-design in beadwork along the length of the vamp, executed in ….. (colours). The hide is stained with a red pigment, and the pair has a hard rawhide sole. This latter trait was probably introduced on the southern Plains by the Apaches, from where it rapidly spread northwards so that by 1850 all tribes made this variety. Comanches of high status had ermine trailers sewn at the heels of their footwear (Schneider 1967:3,6,15).
362-11, 362-15, 362-16, 710-3, 710-12, 710-25 Southern Plains dress, footwear and accessories
Among the Southern Plains tribes a tradition of applied quill- and beadwork was lacking. Dress and accessories were decorated by painting and the addition of a variety of leather fringe, tin cones and metal buttons of brass and German silver. When documentation is lacking, it is difficult to impossible to distinguish between Kiowa and Comanche dress items.
The Comanche collection of Jean Louis Berlandier (1969; Ewers 1969) dating from the 1826-1850 period and now at the Smithsonian Institution provides a seminal starting point for a thorough analysis of Southern Plains Indian attire. John C. Ewers (1980; cf. 1983:107-109) laid the exemplary groundwork with an analysis of women's clothing, and a younger generation of scholars has followed up with studies of cradles (Schneider 1983; Hail 2002) and belt bags (Wooley 1990). The inventory of the Smithsonian's Kiowa collections has recently been completed and published, and should facilitate and encourage further research (Merrill et.al. 1997).
(Pieter Hovens 2008-09)

Mocassins (woeágno) met harde zolen. Het bovenleer (hertenleer) is van buiten geel gemaakt en versierd met groene franje van hertenleer en smalle banden van kralenwerk (witte, donker- en lichtblauwe en rode kralen). Aan de hiel zit een bos koordjes van hertenleer.
Naar voorbeeld van westers schoeisel en door het toenemend gebruik van stijgbeugels werden harde zolen steeds vaker toegepast.