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Indian Leggings: I like all kinds of Indian artefacts, painted, quilled or beaded item. However I particularly like leggings and the symmetry or asymmetry it creates when I paint them. Like most Indian artefacts it is loaded with symbolism and spiritual meanings often only known by the user or maker. The mystic quality that leggings have, makes it a very attractive subject to paint. My first leggings paintings were a series of miniature watercolors. Then later I made a series of etching. And at last a few acrylic paintings.
The leggings were most often made from deerskin, often the deer buck. Therefore often called buckskin leggings. At least two skins were needed to make a pair of leggings. The skins was folded and stitched together to create the leg. On the old style plains leggings, the animal legs were still attached, later this part was cut away or cut into fringes. This way they leggings started to look more like the white mans pants. Among the Crow and other High plains tribes the leggings was made from trade cloth. The cloth leggings create two perfect rectangles when they are laid flat.
Leggings were often decorated with fringes, made from leather, human hair, strips of fur, or hair from humans, horse and buffalo. The Human hair used was sometimes taken from enemy scalps. Also hair from friends and family was used. Coup markings were often used in form of horizontal stripes. These stripes could also be a record of other deeds such as; the amount of horse raiding parties that the user had been on, in his lifetime. On pair of Blackfoot leggings has tadpoles painted on the leggings. The tadpoles could have special powers that the owner identified with or wish to acquire during battle.
The early plains leggings are decorated with porcupine quillwork. In the 1830-1850 leggings with pony beads started appearing. From 1860s and into the reservation period the leggings had strips of seed beads. The north has in general wider strips of beading then in the south witch normally had narrow bands of beadwork.
I think that Indian leggings are a wonderful piece of clothing, which has long traditions. The leggings will hopefully continue to evolve and play a role in the powwow culture of the future.
