Necklace

1870

"Alan Ferg:361-22Tonto Apache necklace; cloth, glass and yerba del manso beads; l. (doubled over) 43 cm.; ca. 1880.This necklace, also collected in June/July 1883 at San Carlos, Arizona, is strung on a tightly twisted length of cloth. The only pattern is that a glass bead (of whatever color) alternates with a cylindrical yerba del manso bead. The glass beads include spherical light blue, three black and one dark blue, and large red white-heart beads of various lengths.‖ Kate remarked that the Apaches did little or no body or face painting, although face painting is known to have been done by both men and women for various social occasions, and by men returning from raids (Ferg 1987:fig. 3.6). Tattooing was rare, and he saw only a few individuals with small bluish figures on their faces. Jewelry was the primary form of personal adornment, including hair ornaments, earrings, necklaces, bracelets and finger rings. Ten Kate wrote: \"The Apaches have few ornaments, and these consist primarily of necklaces and bracelets of beads, red beans, and the bark of a certain plant called yerba del manso (Anemopsis californica) by the Mexicans. This bark, which has the color of cork, is characterized by a distinct, aromatic fragrance and astringent taste and is also chewed by the Indians because they maintain it is good for their gums. In the 1800s, large size pony and trade beads seem to predominate, and were strung on necklaces and earrings, as we see among Ten Kate's specimens. As traders started carrying more small seed beads, these were strung in quantity as simple loops, flat woven beadwork items, and sewn onto buckskin clothing and accessories. Early beads included red beads with a white center, known variously as cornaline d'Aleppo, Hudson Bay, or white-heart beads.Kate's red beans are beads made from red seeds, either coral beans (Erythrina flabelliformis) or mescal beans (Sophora secundiflora). Both have shiny seeds, so hard that they are generally perforated for stringing by burning a hole through the seed coat with a hot wire or metal awl, rather than trying to drill a hole. Coral beans grow in southeastern Arizona, southwestern New Mexico, and on south into Old Mexico. Mescal beans are found in extreme southeastern New Mexico, much of southern Texas, and on south into Old Mexico (Merrill 1977:fig. 3). As such, in the 1800s, Chiricahuas and Western Apaches generally used coral beans, and Mescaleros used mescal beans.\Yerba del manso, also known as Yerba mansa, could also have been collected by Western Apaches themselves. It grows in cienegas and swampy places. Coral-colored stolons, or runners, grow outward, and were cut into segments and used as beads that had a strong, pleasant fragrance. Ten Kate's note about Apaches chewing it to promote healthy gums was also a practice in Hispanic communities throughout the Southwest and northern Mexico (Ford 1975:341-343), and continued on into the 1900s (Rea 1997:215).‖ Beads and necklaces can be very different in both style and material, sometimes influenced by trade and contact with different populations. \As seen in photographs from the early twentieth century (Ferg 1987:62, 68, 89, 102, 116, 136), Apache men and women usually wore much longer necklaces than these. Such a long chain was wrapped around the neck four to about eight times fairly tightly, and then the remainder, wrapped around the neck one or more times, draped across the chest and belly and may have been decorated with a large silver knot. These necklaces were made of white beads, often interspersed with dark colored beads.‖ Shorter necklaces that were only wrapped around the neck once were used to hang ominous (utilitarian) items, such as for a baby (baby's charm necklace), for a girl in the four days of her puberty rite, and for a boy the first two times he went off to war (Ferg 1987:113). \Ferg, Alan (ed.)-1996[1987]-Western Apache Material Culture. The Goodwin and Guenther Collections".