Great Warriors Path: Native Life: Trade Silver

Over the weekend, we discussed the trade links that the Great Warpath made possible. Today we're focusing on a specific item of trade-trade silver. A note on terminology, first. Trade silver refer to silver items being traded, not to any particular grade of silver. Trade silver items were sometimes made of coins, so coin silver was the most-preferred grade of silver. Coin silver is metal with a high volume of silver, and a copper or zinc alloy mixed in. It's easy to work with and could be used to mass produce a variety of earrings, necklaces, armbands, brooches, nose bobs and other items that were portable enough to carry in a trader's pack, yet valuable enough to swap for beaver pelts or other items the trader wished to acquire from the Natives. Natives often used these pieces to trade and barter amongst themselves, which is they preferred the more valuable coin silver. Nickel silver is not silver at all. It's an alloy of nickel, zinc and copper that looks silver but contains none. It became used for trade silver in the nineteenth century, during the latter part of the period under discussion and beyond. Let's discuss a few of the items in greater detail.

Earrings ran the gamut from simple balls and drops mounted on rings, to elaborate stars and pinwheels that could be stamped out of sheets of silver and mounted on hooks or chains to thread through the earlobe. Most men had a set of ball and drop earrings. Some had a series of piercings along the upper ridge of the ear and used several of the ball/drop pattern earrings to outline the ear. Other men preferred the stars, sometimes in patterns of two, three or more to create elaborate earrings.

Nose bobs and nose rings. A nose bob resembles an old pop top on a soda or beer can and was attached to the septum of the nose by tribes who practiced nasal piercing, such as the Seneca and Shawnee. Others used nose rings or smaller stars for this purpose.

Necklaces were usually strings of silver beads that fit around the neck and could be either one or two strands. However, in the Catlin portrait, Osceola appears to have a longer two-four strand silver necklace. Whether these were chains or silver beads similar to a modern liquid silver necklace I can't make out.

Brooches took many forms, but the most popular were ring brooches, a tiny series of rings fastened to the front yoke of a shirt. Brooches of other patterns, including crosses and small carvings of animals, served as adornments on shirts.

Arm bands often fit around the upper or lower arm. In addition to ornamentation, they served the practical purpose of controlling the long, full sleeves, much as garters did later. Cornplanter/Kaintwakon had a particularly large silver bracelet, almost like a wrist greave, in one of his portraits. Whether he used it for ornamentation or protection is not apparent from the picture. Joseph Brant often wore smaller bracelets around the wrist, much as some men do today.

Gorgets,, pronounced gor-zhay, the crescent-shaped neck ornaments used by the leaders and leading warriors of many tribes, could also be made of trade silver. Copied from the insignia of rank used by European and American officers, they were often given to high status men during negotiations with Natives as a way of acknowledge the rank and conferring a special gift. Soon, leaders and noted warriors had gorgets made as their own symbols of rank, stacking them in layers of two, three or four crescent-shaped pieces down the front of their outfit. There was no system of rank insignia, such as more gorgets indicating a chief, while less indicated a warrior. Osceola had a neckpiece of four gorgets, but detached one to give it to a White friend who had bought a dress for Osceola's daughter. Gorgets could be highly stylized and decorated, as is the one Joseph Brant wears in one of his portraits.

There were other items, too. James Girty wore a series of the ball and drop adornments in a lattice-work around the front of his headdress. Joseph Brant appears to have silver adornments on the base of one of his headdresses, as well. Corn planter wore several silver accents on his clothing, somewhat like a modern regalia.