Before the arrival of European settlers, the people of what is now the Americas used different materials – shells, bone and porcupine quills, amongst others – to make decorative (and portable) items.
The coming of the Europeans brought glass beads to trade for furs, hides and food, and these quickly became a desirable item to American Indians, valued for their colours and hardness and replacing the old materials that were hard to work by hand and to drill. Nowadays this beadwork is highly sought-after. To see why head over to this site where there are examples from the Smithsonian collections.
The beadwork from the continent is hugely varied but it is perhaps the people of the Great Plains who are most celebrated for the intricacy of their designs and colours. This website shows some of the pieces in the collection of the Museum of Natural and Cultural History in Oregon.
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