Lindsey Watts

Abigail Martin
28 September 2017
Lindsey Watts
Abigail Martin
28 September 2017

Artifact Paper

This artifact is a pair of moccasins from Native Americans during colonial times. These

moccasins were made out of animal hide, likely deer, sheep, wolf, or buffalo. This particular

pair was also hand decorated by a member of the tribe using beads of various color. They often

used various berries, leaves, and fruits to stain them in order to give them their color.

These moccasins were owned by a member of the Plains Indians, which included any of

the Native American peoples that lived in an area of the United States called the Great Plains.

The Great Plains occupy what is the vast grassland between the Mississippi River and the Rocky

Mountains, extending from what is now Alberta Canada and through a large portion of present-

day Texas.

These are real, worn shoes of a Native American from the 19th Century, which means

that these moccasins have travelled on land that no longer exists in the way it used to. Lands

that were once farms, woods, pastures, or small villages are now large cities filled with

concrete, houses, and people. These moccasins are a piece of history because the dirt they

walked on can never be touched again.

This artifact could be used in a unit regarding Native Americans and Colonists by

introducing the students to the word moccasin and providing these for them to look at. This

would lead into a lesson about the Trail of Tears. Having this hands-on experience with the

moccasins will prove helpful as the students would then create their own moccasins in order to

prepare to walk the Trail of Tears. By holding the shoes themselves, they know exactly what

they are creating and can see the purpose behind creating them.