Shirt that tells its history
This shirt shows some of the very few European trade goods used to decorate this group of shirts. Two of the quilled rosettes on the sleeve have centres of red wool cloth. Cloth became readily available after 1795, when the Hudson's Bay Company established Fort Edmonton in Blackfoot territory. Different kinds of beads, scissors, thimbles and ribbon were also obtained from traders to make and decorate clothing. Some shirts from the 1830s and 1840s are decorated almost entirely in blue, white and black beads, with little quillwork. This shirt is of an older style of decoration, with just a tiny bit of cloth added.
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