Indian Trade Beads

BosnMate

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Sep 10, 2010
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I have a small collection of glass trade beads.
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I'm no means an expert, and I've forgotten stuff I learned a few years ago. First, most trade beads you see for sale today came from Africa. They are exactly the same beads that were being traded in north America at the same time. There is one bead that was traded only in the Pacific North West, and that is the cobalt blue Russian Facet. Otherwise a person only knows if the bead was traded in north America if it's found in this country like any other artifacts. The story on trade beads is fascinating, but I'm not longed winded enough to get into that this evening. The first beads are called Russian Facets, and they were traded extensively in the Pacific Northwest. I've seen some really large Russian facets that were found in the area around Pyramid Lake in Nevada.
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Next, the one on the left of the dime is called a Lewis and Clark. Supposedly that is a style of bead traded on the expedition. I don't know the truth of that, but I read in their journals that they ran out of blue beads, and the Natives on the coast wanted blue beads, and would hardly trade for anything else. The other redish bead was traded to the Qunault Nation on the coast of Washington state, by the Hudson Bay Company.
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The next beads are called "white hearts. These beads range in size from tiny seed beads to quite large. If you find one of these beads that has a pink heart, that supposedly means the gold in the red portion is migrating into the white area, and that takes several hundred years.
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Note the little tiny white heart seed bead.
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Above these beads are a couple of white hearts that were found in Northern California. They were recovered on top of the ground, off a mound of dirt that a ground squirrel had dug up.
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The above bead is called a "Manhattan," as supposedly $21 of this type of bead purchased Manhattan for the Dutch. This bead is a crude knock off of the Chevron bead, which is pictured below.
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The Chevron bead comes in many sizes, all the way from small to huge. Many of these beads are being made today, so before you pay big money for a bead, be sure it's not a modern knockoff.
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This brick red bead has a green heart, as I think it's called a "cornealian." My spell checker says that's spelled wrong, and I have no idea how to spell it -- anyhow these beads were also found in northern California.
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Above, I think the one on the left is called a "skunk" bead. Next is a Russian Facet, then the two light blue faceted beads are NOT Russian. Those particular beads probably come from Africa, as does the French Ambassador bead to the left, and the Lewis and Clark, pictured below.
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And finally, the last picture, there are a couple of Manhattans, a chevron, and the last kind of red floral bead looks just like tribal beads I saw in Fernley, Nevada.
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Your post on the sky blue beads is highly interesting unclemac. Sure makes you wonder if you may have something that is directly connected to one of our countries most greatest historical events. ??

from what i understand there is no way to be sure....you see when they left fort Clatsop to return they gave the fort to Chief Coboway and it was used for many years until it fell into ruin. the only thing for sure is that the sky blue beads (color) were highly valued above all others. I have poked around a bit and haven't come across these same beads for sale or on other posts.
 

from what i understand there is no way to be sure....you see when they left fort Clatsop to return they gave the fort to Chief Coboway and it was used for many years until it fell into ruin. the only thing for sure is that the sky blue beads (color) were highly valued above all others. I have poked around a bit and haven't come across these same beads for sale or on other posts.
Those would be a good one for that show, " The History Detectives". Not sure they still run that anymore on the PBS channel? If not I wished bring it back. They would use all kinds of resources to solve the mystery on a particular artifact that was said to be something significantly tied to history. Some they would prove without out a doubt and other items could only be given a good possibility of what it was said to be.
 

Nice collections, BosnMate & southfork! I've been collecting trade beads for many years, but never "found" any! Seems like Northern Cali around Sacramento is a hot spot for white and red beads, and russian blues. One of these days i sure would like to find a spot around there for a hunt! I have some "from" there, but finding is better...;)
I treasure most the big Blue Russians that I collected on Vancouver Island, they're so beautiful....

THE place to find trade beads was the Columbia River before the dams. I've seen beautiful collections that were found along the river. There was a dig at Fort Vancouver, and they found a lot of beads, but none are -- or were -- on display when I was there. I asked, and the guy said, "they are just a bunch of beads," and that was exactly what I wanted to look at. Of course Fort Vancouver was a HBC post, after Lewis and Clark.
 

A mix of drilled stone and glass beads all from the same site . All personal finds from private property .
 

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very nice...it looks like your faceted cobalt blue ones may have that large on one side, small on the other side hole. which i am told was done with a hot pin during its manufacture.
 

I found a small batch of Spanish type small glass single color type trade beads (of various colors) from the 1700 era -- hey match up exactly to the kind of beads found at the 1702 destroyed San Luis mission site here in Florida * --the place I found mine at was at a Indian village site (most likely destroyed by the Englsh in 1702 as well) at a place called GOFFINSVILLE PARK -- in the past it was a junky but undeveloped park in Nassau county Fla --I used to find all kinds of beads when the winds blew right uncovering them on the surface of the ground ..sadly the county decided they wanted to update the park and build a boat launching ramp and a paved parking lot --so much for the site it was destroyed -- once I showed a fla state female archie the beads I found at a meeting in St Augustine (I even showed her a few ultra rare hand made pre contact type coral beas I found there) , and told her what had occurred --she said with a sniff "well at least now their protected from looters "--I told her they dug a 8 foot deep hole to set up the parking lot and that the dirt was hauled off to a land fill site --that there was "no more" site left at all =---and that what I saved was all that remained of the site --she just shrugged.
 

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very nice...it looks like your faceted cobalt blue ones may have that large on one side, small on the other side hole. which i am told was done with a hot pin during its manufacture.
UncleMac the blues do have a small and large end this is the only camp that we find that type . Most of the faceted beads we find are the same sized hole all the way through . The red and whites are random shapes and sizes seems no two are alike .
 

the ones with the irregular hoes are the earliest examples of that type dating to the early 1800's. the type by and large fell out of favor when seed beads replaced quill work in the mid 1800's.
 

THE place to find trade beads was the Columbia River before the dams. I've seen beautiful collections that were found along the river. There was a dig at Fort Vancouver, and they found a lot of beads, but none are -- or were -- on display when I was there. I asked, and the guy said, "they are just a bunch of beads," and that was exactly what I wanted to look at. Of course Fort Vancouver was a HBC post, after Lewis and Clark.

A very nice lady who is the Associate Chair of Anthropology at the Smithsonian specializes in studying the Columbia River trade beads. She was kind enough to email me a paper that she co-wrote, as well as send me a spare copy of the reports from Fort Vancouver...it has some pictures of the beads. I would be happy to forward the former, and maybe post some pics from the report if you wish.
 

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yes please do post...such info would be very valuable to us here.
 

Its quite a large PDF file...I would be happy to forward it to anyone who wants to PM me their email...

I'll try to find time to post a couple of pics when i dig out the report!
 

These are the few beads I have found while I was point hunting, I was wondering if anyone can identify the cobalt elongated bead for me? I find this thread kinda fascinating!
 

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