Photos: We saw you Rock Your Mocs!
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Several Indigenous community members shared their moccasin photos in honor of “Rock Your Mocs” week, including Fond du Lac Band tribal citizen and artist Wendy Savage.
Savage has been making moccasins since the 1980s. When she first started out, the internet didn’t exist, so she had to hit the road.
“I would go from museum to museum, looking at patterns, and then also talking to a lot of elders,” Savage said. “I do a lot of historical research.”
Savage says most of the beadwork patterns she has are her own designs. She’s been beading since she was 17 — over 50 years ago.
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“You’re talking to a really old lady here,” she said with a laugh. Savage remembers a beadwork group she joined on the Fond du Lac Reservation. There, women from 20 to 80 years of age would get together.
Savage, who has taught at the University of Minnesota Duluth and the tribal college at Fond du Lac, said she learned from elders and people in the community — where patterns were passed down generation after generation.
She said patterns for moccasin-making are treasured and closely guarded. It was hard for her at first to get people to share how to make split toe moccasins correctly.
She finally learned how to do it, a process she said she’s reluctant to share (although she did share with MPR News!).
Recounting on the history of moccasin making, Savage said the patterns have remained the same while moccasins have adapted for a different environment like concrete and office building floors.
“What’s changed is the soles,” she said, and the use of commercially tanned buckskin or elk hide. Now, if you want your moccasins to last, Savage said, you would need a rubber sole to reinforce the leather.
Savage says she loves adding embellishments to her moccasins.
“I call myself the queen of embellishment. The more ribbon, the more glitz you have on it, the better,” Savage.
Today, she makes moccasins for her nieces and nephews, having retired from teaching.
“Now that I’m an aunt, and a great, great aunt, usually, [for] every member of my family, I make a pair of moccasins for their babies.”
Community submissions
We’ve appreciated seeing your photos and reading your stories about your moccasins. Here are a few highlights from community photo submissions.
“These are Ho-Chunk moccasins made by a relative that I wore as an infant. My first son wore them after he was born and my next child will as well when we meet them this spring,” wrote Talia Miracle, who is from the Ho-Chunk Nation.
Ivy Vainio is a direct descendant of the Grand Portage Band and wrote, “My beaded moccasins were made by Veronica Skinaway, Sandy Lake Ojibwe. She gifted them to me at the Fond du Lac Ojibwe Reservation’s Veterans Powwow two years ago when I started to dance jingle.”
“I was privileged in participating in a community education class on the Bemidji State University campus in the A.R.A.C building teaching how to make pucker toe moccasins. Since this class I have made numerous pairs of moccasins for my family members," wrote Red Lake Nation citizen Ronald Anderson.
Red Lake Nation citizen Ryan Clark wrote, “Moccasins are a representation of the relationship we have with the Deer.”
Thank you for sharing!
