A pair of Apache beaded moccasins


With Geronimo provenance, thick soled and with curled toes, beaded around the instep, vamp, tongue and cuffs, a pair of undulating lightning bolts converging on the toe, yellow ochre applied on some of the unbeaded areas, signed GERONIMO in black ink alongside the tongue on one of the pair.length 10in
|ProvenanceCollected by Dr. Hal C. Wyman (1852-1908), thence through the family. Acquired from a descendant by the vendor, part of a collection of Native American artifacts assembled by Dr. Hal C. Wyman and his brother, Dr. Hugh S. Wyman. A prominent physician in Detroit, Hal C. Wyman founded Emergency Hospital and the Michigan College of Medicine and Surgery. The present lot was acquired by the doctor at the internment camp in Mount Vernon, Alabama, where the famed Apache leader was incarcerated with his warriors between 1887 and 1894; a handwritten letter penned by Wyman recounts the experience:"These slippers - moccasins - were made by the Apache Indians and given to me by the Chief Geronimo in 1892 while a prisoner with his tribe at Mt. Vernon Alabama. The Apache were a most cruel and blood thirsty tribe of Savages living in Arizona. Geronimo was the cruelest of Chiefs and slaughtered hundreds of White settlers in the South West. The government spent much blood and treasure in subduing them. Geronimo wrote his name in my presence as it appears on one of the moccasins. He learned to write his name while a pupil in Mexican Mission schools when a boy. (signed) Hal C. WymanMt. Vernon is on the Alabama River about forty miles above Mobile. At the time of my visit the Indian captives were dying daily with tuberculosis. A little bit later the government moved them to Fort Sill Indian Territory where they could have more air and open prairie life.H.T.W."On the back page, written in pencil in another hand: "These beaded moccasins referred to are among the Indian things loaned to the Children's Room(?) at the Institute of Arts. (see list + letter) - June 21, 1920"