Museum Minute: Beadwork on a Horse Mask Shows Bond Between Blackfeet Owner and Animal

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.