Long ago our ordinary, everyday clothing used when working, hunting, and so on, was quite plain. There was very little embroidery or quill-work done on these. We kept our rich beading, embroidery, and quill work for "good", for dances, special days, and ceremonies. Young people and the wealthy had more decoration on their clothes than others. This is still true today.

Our style of decorating moccasins had a definite pattern. Usually our moccasins had embroidery on the tongue and along the seam of the tongue. A common method was to cover the tongue with red or blue cloth. It was finished by sewing several lines of beads (2 to 7 rows) close together. Sometimes embroidery with silk thread is used in place of the beads.

The lines may be of alternating colours or they may be of varied colours, but were usually alternating. Sometimes the border was embroidered with silk in two or more colours. Often the embroidered stitches cross, like quill-work. Before we had beads or embroidery thread, we used quills. Quills were dyed by boiling them with different plants, plant matter, and rocks to get different colours.

If cloth was not used, then the decorating is done on the skin itself. If it was done on skin, it was usually beaded. Our bead designs were open designs. That is we usually did not fill the whole surface of the tongue with beads.

Many of our moccasins have plain tongues, with only the border decorated with beads, embroidery, or quill work. Piping of skin or of red cloth was often used in all the seams of the moccasin. This piping is always cut close. This is the only decorating which is done on the front or toe seam and the heel seams of moccasins.

The top seam which joins the foot and legging pieces of the moccasin was often finished with a piping of leather or of cloth. Instead of being cut close, these pipings were left longer, about 2-4 cm (1-1.5 inches). These pipings were cut to form a fringe or left intact to form a flap which reached around the foot and up to the sides of the tongue. If this flap was made from tanned hide, we liked to pink it to make a short tooth-like fringe. Or sometimes we made a series of square notches by cutting out every other fringe.

If the flap was made of cloth, it was edged with braid or ribbon to prevent fraying. Sometimes the flap is made of leather covered with cloth. Usually the leather flaps are narrower than the cloth and the leather would be pinked. Cloth flaps are usually wider than leather ones. They are also often beaded. The beads might be sewn along the edge or as an edging in addition to an open design. Embroidery was done on the flap, but not quill work.

Most flaps are left loose to hang down and form a fringe to cover the laces at the sides of the moccasin. Others are stitched to the foot of the moccasin at the lower edge. If they are stitched, then there are no side loops on the moccasins (if they are there, they are not used).

Teit reports that he was told that piping cut close is an old Tahltan design. So are the narrow, pinked flaps of tanned hide. Wide, embroidered flaps are thought to be more modern (early 1900's), and likely came in with the traders.

He also noticed that slipper moccasins with no uppers have much wider flaps. These are usually stitched to the moccasin, but some are loose. Sometimes a strip of fur was used instead, but never bird skin.

When Teit visited the Telegraph Creek area in 1912-15, he saw mainly cloth flaps, rarely leather ones. The main colours were: red, blue, and black. Sometimes the edge of the cloth was cut in a wavy line, with and without, pinking. Sometimes more than one layer of cloth was used and some or all layers of cloth were pinked.

In those days, the uppers of moccasins were rather plain. The only decorating done was pinking around the edges. Moccasins were not cut with fringes like leggings. Appliques were never used. Teit saw only a few moccasins with wrapped quill work around the tongue instead of cross quill work. When this was done, a narrow piece of skin was used as a foundation, then stitched on later. This form of decorating was very rare.

In the 1920's (or so) a type of cut-out design was made. It is said that this type of decoration was developed by our women. This method required two layers. One was usually coloured fabric and the other tanned hide, with the hide as the top layer. A design of choice (perhaps a horse head) would be cut from the leather. When fabric is placed behind the leather cut-out, it shows up as a contrasting, bright colour.

Trailers (pieces of skin at the heel) were seldom cut in an ornamental way by us. Most moccasins had none; they were cut off even with the heel of the moccasin. They were rarely stitched up on the heel of the shoe. Very few were left untrimmed. Those that were left, stuck out 2 cm (2 inch) or so. A few cut these a bit shorter or longer. The only other cut than the square cut was to make a V-shaped cut.

Sometimes we made fancier moccasins. These would be embroidered or beaded on the tongue as described above. Or they might have the fancy tongue plus beads or other designs all over the fronts and/or sides.

Our boots might be decorated with fringes 1-5 cm. (.5 to 2.5 inches) long on the seam on the outside of the leg. If the fringe was short, it was pinked. Sometimes, the piping was cut close and trimmed with quill work. Teit noticed that if there was quill work, then no fringes were used, and vice versa. He also noticed that no painting or staining was done on moccasins or boots.

Wrap-arounds, slippers, and mukluks are still in use today, although not as much. People own store boots and may own hand-sewn moccasins as well. We rarely use moccasins for work now. If we do, they tend to be plainer than ones that we use when we are not working.

Shirts, dresses, leggings and pants were all decorated similarly to the legs of boots. Note that our women's leggings had decorations only from the knee down. The top of the leggings were covered by the dress, so there was no need to decorate the upper part. The same designs regarding fringes and pinking were used. Some fringes had alternating strands pinked and cut. Our fringes were (and still are) never long, like those of the plains people. They were (and are) cut wider than other those of other native peoples. Also, we rarely cut extra strings of skin, then embroider or bead them, or made fringes separately to sew on later. Some shirts or dresses had pieces sewn on the front opening, but these were functional, not for decoration, although the extra pieces might be pinked or fringed.

A Tahltan woman's dress

Fringes on our shirts and dresses were short, up to 9 cm (3 inches) or so, and cut fairly wide with the narrowest being about 3 mm (1/4 inch). Any of the fringe variations already mentioned might be used. For variety, some fringes might be punctured with small triangular or round holes.

Generally, men's shirts had fringes, women's were decorated with quill work along all or most of the seams. Many also had embroidery, usually stripes, on the front and back of the dress. These were placed above the waist or at the neck or bottom of the dress. The bottom of the dress was never fringed.

Our mitts were decorated with fringes and pinking along the seams long ago. A few had stripes of quill work on the upper parts. Early in the 1900Õs and today, our mitts or gloves are decorated on the cuffs. Gloves with wide cuffs we call gauntlets. The cuffs on these are often well decorated.

In early days, quill work was common. When different materials became available, we worked the new materials into our designs. Our mitts and gloves were fancy, with embroidery thread, beads, quill work, red cloth, etc. Long ago embroidery thread was made of silk, now they are usually made of cotton. Silk thread is much shinier than cotton and has deeper, richer colours.

The mitt strings were made from tanned hide long ago. When wool was brought in, we began to make our strings from brightly coloured wool. Wool tassels were attached to the mitts or gloves for decoration. If the string (or strap) was made of tanned hide, it might be pinked for decoration.

Our fur hats were fancy enough with the fur, so there was little done to make them fancier. Girls and women's caps might be made of strips of different kinds of fur and trimmed with a contrasting fur.

If the fur headband was made with the head and feet intact, they might be worn with these hanging down the side or back. Men's caps were sometimes decorated with small bunches of feathers sewn to the front, or to one or both sides. A few were decorated with ribbons, coloured cloth, pearl buttons, shells, feathers, beads, teeth, etc. But headbands with these decorations were usually part of ceremonial clothing.

Our robes were decorated in many ways. Skins of rabbit fur often had the skins arranged according to colour in a variety of ways. By arranging the colours, the robes looked as though they were striped. Or there might be blocks of coloured skins, with white fur in one area, and changing ones in another (that is, changing colour in the fall). We used this method was used with other furs to some extent, as well.

If our robes were made of skins from small animals, the tails, and maybe the head, ears, and feet, were often left on. Other decoration included quill work in stripes on the leather strip around the outside edge. The outside strip was rarely painted in red stripes. When our women were making the robes, they marked the inside of the fur to show where to cut. Red ochre was used rather than black charcoal. Charcoal smeared and was too messy. So, if you looked at the inside of the robes, it looked as if the insides of robes often had all the seams painted red. There were no pictographs or designs as among the plains natives.

Only ceremonial robes were decorated with pendants, clams, teeth, shells, and so on. Some robes had fringes of the same material or skin as the robe. These fringes were quite short and not cut very fine.

We had no particular designs in quill or beadwork on our clothing. The designs in quill were all geometric and generally arranged in lines or narrow strips. Bead designs were usually floral. Teit believed that they were adopted from the Tlingit, although he does not give a reason for this opinion.

Clothing was rarely painted, except along the seams. A very few people made a few of what Teit calls "fanciful designs" on clothing in red and black. Designs had no meaning, or at least, nothing to do with dreams. Only Shamans sometimes painted marks or designs on clothing, which had a connection with dreams or manitous.

We used to decorate our ordinary belts in many ways. Belts of both men and women had quill work. Some had fringes or thongs along the lower edge, which were strung with dentalia (a type of seashell that formed a hollow tube). Some had fringes or pinking. Very few were plain, with no decoration.

Of course, nowadays when we decorate our clothing, we use many different methods and designs. Our moccasins are still made and decorated in a similar way. Beading is popular. Slippers are generally trimmed around the ankle in fur. Floral designs are still popular, whether beaded or embroidered. Very few people do quill work anymore, however.

Our beading or embroidery on clothing is still simpler than those of some other natives. For example, our flowers, stems, and leaves may or may not be filled in. Sometimes only an outline of one or two rows of beads is sewn. Some native peoples do very heavy beading with both the design and the background completely covered in beads.

We have not confined our designs to simple outlines and geometric lines, however, but feel free to use adaptations of West Coast Native art and other designs. We also use a variety of materials and methods in creating the designs. For example, designs might be applied to clothing using silkscreening or machine embroidery.

In spite of the variety of designs and methods of application, when we think of traditional Tahltan designs, we tend to think of the simpler, more open designs described above. We enjoy working with new materials and experimenting with designs. Those of us who know how to do traditional work are proud of their work. People who wear clothing with our traditional designs or adapted designs and materials, do so with pride.