I am into a moccasin battle with a friend ovr the fringe. I hav always thought and believed that the fringe’s purpose was either purely decorative or to provide motion to keep flies away. He says that it because on the knee high moccasins that was how they put the shoe together, by tieing the fringe. i hav never heard of tieing the fringe in my life and i hav asked several people and i hav been to an indian artifact museum and saw nothing of the sort. Please inform me on whether the fringe was purposed for embellishment or ”tying” the shoes on. thank you
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It was neither. The fringe served to divert rainwater away from the foot, as it diverted rain away from the body on jackets and leggings.
Most moccasins didn’t have fringe.
The fringed moccasin is a Non-Native embellishment .
Quilled Moccasins
http://www.geocities.com/wipata/moccassins.html
Moccasin collection
Jason Tyler Gallery
http://www.jasontylergallery.com/moccasins.aspx
Moccasin collection
Wisconsin Historical Museum Online Collections
http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/museum/collections/online/Results.cfm?ParentID=696727
.
You might want to clarify what type of moccasins you are talking about. Most moccasins were only ankle high. The “knee high” mocs you are referring to are a modern style. A result of combining the moccasins with a woman’s legging which was knee high with the moccasin.
Some of the southern tribes did use a high style mocc but again, those were a result of combining the legging with the mock and on men generally were higher than the knee.
Plain’s style women’s leggings sometimes did have short fringe at the top where it was folded over.
As someone else mentioned, “drippers” or fringe, was used to divert water. Here is a link to a Comanche moccasin showing the high leg and drippers.
http://www.nativetech.org/clothing/moccasin/detail/comanche.html
Your friend is up in the night. Fringe was never used to “tie the mocc” together. My husband makes traditional 2 piece style mocc and he sews the sole to the top with sinew. No fringe there.
The only other thing I could possible think of that your friend might be referring too is the “drags.” On old style moccs they would often have a long piece of leather or even a fox or skunk tail that would be tied on and that dragged behind the heel of the mocc. This was to erase their tracks. Again, nothing to do with putting the mocc together.
Here is another good web site you might want to check out.
http://www.nativetech.org/clothing/moccasin/moctext.html