Featured Some dolls I have that portray Native American, but are they NA made?

I assume that they are but I could be wrong. They were termed as Coeur d'Alene dolls when I bought them. I don’t know if that’s correct? Could they just be Skookum dolls made by non natives? The faces seem to be wood but I’m not sure what type. They almost look like dried carved nuts. The hands and some other pieces are leather. There is some beadwork. Some eyes are beads but I don’t know if those are original or stuck there later. Condition is rough but they have more character than you can shake a stick at. There’s a gun carved from wood that’s to die for. They seem pretty early to me. I can’t imagine they are newer than first quarter of 20th c. I guess someone will pick up clues from fabric and beads or wire used. I absolutely love them. I think I bought them with the intention of flipping but I don’t really see that happening now. I really like the cross legged lady. I’d like to hear some opinions from the gallery.

 

Apple head dolls.... https://www.google.com/search?q=app...V5nGoFHdRqBRkQ_AUoAnoECAEQBA&biw=1430&bih=688

 

Ahaha. That’s too funny! That would explain why I couldn’t pin down the head material. Can’t say I’ve seen carved dried apple before now.

 

My first thought also........apple head dolls.

Popular craft about 30 years ago.....give or take.

 

Are the moccasins leather, like a kind of suede leather? They almost look like brain tanned leather on all but the seated figure. A close up photo and a size reference would help. Do the moccasins have a faint wood smoke odor? If part of their material were brain tanned leather, it would increase the odds greatly that they were NA made (although still not definitive proof).

 

We made them when I was in 4th grade, twice that long ago.

 

https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/antique-cloth-native-american-1788289917​

 

They do look mummified, disturbingly so.

(And I thought my tangerine skin snuff bottle looked bad.)

 

Credit to Worthpoint image, enlarged, if that's OK, if not, tell me & I'll take it down!!

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I can’t say I noticed a smoke smell after a quick sniff. My sniffer isn’t the most sensitive or tuned in though. Here a some closeups. The hands on this one may not even be leather. Maybe more dried apple? Can’t tell really. The mocs are definitely suede like leather.

 

@J Dagger - that looks like brain tanned leather to me. That, and the fact that they are dressed in reservation days clothing instead of more stereotypical pre-reservation days clothing (which is what a non-Native American would be more likely to choose), has me leaning towards these being Native American made.

 

Interesting. I kind of thought a similar thing with the clothing and overall look. They look so personal. Like they were actual people. Not just made up to look how someone might think they would sell best. They look to be depicting actual individuals for the most part to me. Definitely not in traditional NA garb as you said but assimilated or reservation clothing. With the exception of the cross legged doll obviously. I’ll poke around a bit and see if I can find some that are known to be NA made. I suppose they could have also been made on a Rez by a missionary or the like. Could have been someone who did business with them or encountered them often who wasn’t NA.

 

Ah well here we go. Straight from wiki: “
In colonial America, white settlers and enslaved people fashioned children's toys from utilitarian objects and materials on hand such as cornhusks, clothes-pins and rags, using ingenuity and imagination.[1] The use of apples as doll heads was a Native American practice and may have originated among the Iroquois[2] or Seneca people.[3]

As colonists came into contact with Native peoples, they copied their dolls; Native peoples also began to make brightly and elaborately costumed apple-head dolls to sell to tourists.[4] Skookum dolls in Native dress, which were popular novelties between 1913 and the early 1960s, were originally made with apple heads; however their creator, Mary Dwyer McAboy, was not Native.[5]”