How Do You Spot Beadwork That Is Not Made By Native Americans?
These days, many people create beautiful works of beadwork, including non-Indians. To clarify for the purposes of this article, I am not speaking of those who have been taught beadwork by Native Americans or who have learned it from someone who was but rather the manufactured beadwork that comes from overseas, usually Asia. Sadly, there is a lot of this type of beadwork around that is masquerading as authentic Native American beadwork. It’s not, and there are several things you can do to tell if beadwork was not created by Native Americans or someone who was taught by them. Educate yourself about the materials used in Native American beadwork. Go to powwows and look at beadwork created by Native Americans or go to the library and find books with pictures. This will give you a good idea of what to look for. If you aren’t sure if a piece of beadwork is authentic or not, one of the ways you can tell is to turn the beadwork over and look at the back. If the backing is not real leather, the
