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Museum Minute: Beadwork on a horse mask shows bond between Blackfeet owner and animal

A horse covering with white beads and geometric shapes is part of an exhibit at the Plains Indian Museum.
Olivia Weitz
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Plains Indian Museum
A horse covering in the Plains Indian Museum by a Blackfeet artist was made with glass beads.

Heather Bender is the native education outreach specialist in the education department at the Center of the West. She said a Blackfeet artist hand sewed thousands of seed beads on a buffalo hide to make a face covering for a horse. The beads are called that because of their small size.

“ It's incredible attention to detail, incredible artistry, and every one of these beads needs to be affixed in a manner that allows for longevity,” Bender said. “There's a lot of intentionality in creating a piece that will withstand the tests of time. And we can see that in this piece.”

The horse mask she’s referencing in the Plains Indian Museum dates back to 1875.

“ It's like any of us. We wanna bling ourselves out. And how many of us have a cat or a dog that we get a little coat for or a special collar for, right? It's human nature. We love our pets,” she said. “And in an Indigenous community, this kind of regalia on a horse indicates the strong bond between the owner and that animal.”

A label about the object says that horses that were trained for warfare or finding bison were often highly decorated in the Blackfeet culture.

Leave a tip: oweitz@uwyo.edu
Olivia Weitz is based at the Buffalo Bill Center of the West in Cody. She covers Yellowstone National Park, wildlife, and arts and culture throughout the region. Olivia’s work has aired on NPR and member stations across the Mountain West. She is a graduate of the University of Puget Sound and the Transom story workshop. In her spare time, she enjoys skiing, cooking, and going to festivals that celebrate folk art and music.

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