Niagara Hat

History of the Niagara Trade Industry 

Why is this hat called a Niagara Hat? In the 19th century, a rise of tourism to Niagara Falls, on the border between New York State and Canada, brought an influx of Euro-American settlers to Haudenosaunee lands. By this time, settler colonial ideology (the belief that white people had a right to occupy land historically cared for and lived on by Indigenous peoples) and practices had forcibly removed many Haudenosaunee people from their ancestral lands and the fur trade had depleted traditional food and clothing resources. By creating and selling tourist souvenirs, Haudenosaunee artists generated essential financial income for themselves, their families, and their communities. This income enabled artists, families, and communities to resist many colonial pressures.  

Of the Haudenosaunee nations, the Tuscarora and the Seneca were the most active artists at Niagara Falls due to their geographic location. Artists from neighboring Indigenous nations also created and sold tourist souvenirs at Niagara Falls. While we do not know the name (or nation) of the artist or artists who made this hat, it was probably made by a Tuscarora or Seneca woman or women. 

With this new tourist consumer base, the imagery of Haudenosaunee beadwork changed rapidly from geometric designs to floral designs, such as those on this Niagara Hat. The beadwork continued to be informed by Indigenous curvilinear forms (forms made of curved lines), but the aesthetic shifted to appeal to Victorian (mid-late 19th century) tourist preferences.

Flowers through the Producer’s Eyes 

According to Richard Hill, a Tuscarora educator and beadworker, floral patterns are important because they recall the Iroquois woodland environment and are part of larger cultural meaning.  

Floral motifs are linked to the feminine through the creator Skywoman, who occupies a position of respect. For the Haudenosaunee, this connection to the feminine is respected. Floral imagery may also connect with Haudenosaunee theory of world creation. When Skywoman, who is also known by the name Mature Flower, arrived on Turtle Island (North America), she began the growth cycles of crucial culinary and medicinal plants.  

Color symbolism may also have played a part in the artist(s)’ choices. Bob Smith, an Oneida teacher, beadworker, and collector, suggests the use of pink, purple, and white might reference the white thistles spread by Hiawatha when he called the five nations together to create a peaceful confederacy.  Hill suggests white can symbolize peacefulness, with white lines symbolizing the path of peace and that white can also symbolize celestial bodies and the bright light within each individual person. Hill shares that purple can symbolize death, tragedy, and mourning, and that purple, black, and blue together can look like constellations in the night sky. 

The beadwork itself reinforces the Haudenosaunee worldview. Beadwork was, and is, a medium for infusing Indigenous realities into clothing. Beadwork, including beadwork intended for tourist consumption, functioned (and functions today) as a way of carrying on Indigenous traditions and resisting colonization through financial generation, artistic innovation, and cultural expression.