Member-only story
First published on Facebook by Lenora “Lee” Dingus
Nod-doh-wa-ge-no (Seneca) Artist of Echoes of the Four Directions
This Is a kokum scarf or grandmother scarf. Kokum means grandmother in Cree.
Today It’s a piece of cloth used in powwows by jingle dancers “as a method of prayer while dancing with pow-wow dresses, It was all so sometimes worn with a ribbon skirt or blouse, as well as a fashion or statement piece. And yes, we sometimes wear them today. We can wear it on our heads or around our necks, or even our waists.
As you can see, they are brightly colored and they have many practical uses. They became a popular staple for Indigenous grandmothers and women in general.
Historically, Grandmothers wore them when they were on the trap lines or as a way to keep their hair back while they chopping wood or skinning an animal, as well as For getting dressed up,The scarf trade started to happen when we started trading with the Europeans many hundreds of years ago.
The scarf dates back to when Ukrainian immigrants were first settling in Canada and the USA in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. “The Ukrainians would trade their stitch work and scarf for our beadwork and vice-versa.” The stitch work became “influenced by our…
