  Case No. 3: This basket and the basket from Maine are rare examples of the old Indian art of moose hair embroidery. A cluster of very fine hair grows from the withers of the wild moose and this hair, dyed in suitable colors, is used for the embroidery. The art of this type embroidery probably dates back to about 1714, at which time the natives used this method of decoration for their own buckskin clothing. It is believed that these people were taught the art at convents after the steel needle was introduced into this country from Europe in the eighteenth century. However, there is no proof of this theory. It is interesting to note other unique examples of decorative art by these people; i.e., the drilling of seed pearls the size of the head of a straight pin and in turn, sewing these pearls on cloth or fiber. With crude tools, they created rare and beautiful works of decorative art which would be difficult for us to duplicate with today’s precision tooling. After adopting Anglo-style clothing these Indians practiced moose hair embroidery art on trinkets such as these until it became almost extinct by 1890. Specimens such as these are rare even in museums. (See |
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