1:00 fun fact: the reason hats like that are “pinned” on the side was to allow a soldier to sling their rifle (which would usually have a bayonet affixed) over their shoulder without knocking their hat off.
Sometimes that was the case (Like slouch hats in the Aussie military uniforms in the 19th-20th C), but to my knowledge it was originally a civilian fashion first back in the 17th Century, not originally based on military practicality. (If that were the case, elaborate feather plumes likely wouldn't have been commonly included in the pinned assembly ;D )
That is also why minutemen and other soldiers with triangle-shaped hats would wear the point in the front slightly to their left or right. It allowed them to do the same with a bayonetted rifle; by pivoting the points in the back to make the straight part parallel to the rifle.
This took me back to highschool art class where we made rings from a coin. A class of 40 kids hammering coins for a few days was deafening, but having the ring at the end was so rewarding.
Perhaps one of the finest set of regalia I have seen belonged to a young Lakota man (18 or 19 at the time) that had punched the primers out of spent 30-30 rifle cartridges and polished and threaded them individually upon the buckskin fringing of both legs and arms. The remaining work was with porcupine quills and glass trade beads depicting a wolf's head on his back.
I would have paid more attention in class with this more "living history" type of instruction. I would also say that how everyday life was like in the past is as important to learn as the significant events that schools focus on. The everyday hardship of the past shows just how good we have it now thanks to our forebears and their hard work.
This would be more accurate too. In the south we are taught demonstrably false things as part of history to paint both slavery and the genocide of the native peoples in a better light.
@@misterhat5823 Regrettably, history is too often written to serve the needs & requirements of the present, rather than a true depiction of the past :-(
I’d love to see the process of melting the cutoff scraps back into usable silver. it's neat to see these handcrafts still being used and remembered, Love the video!
@@BaptistJoshua Sourcing metal from the earth is extremely difficult. Very very few smiths actually get their metal from ore nowadays. Iron/Steel is almost impossible to smelt (the term for refining ore) on your own and normally requires multiple days and a team of people to accomplish. Lighter metals (copper, silver, etc.) are much easier to refine, but still a lot of work. It is only those who enjoy it as a hobby that do smelting now. And industrial factories that produce metals of course.
@@matthewmason7753 Thanks. How do they get the metal? Like steel oxidizes and rusts away, back into the soil. Can that dust be reused? Or does the Earth have to produce more? I wonder if metal is reproduced by the Earth just like oil is.
I love working with silver. Brass, Copper, and Nickle as well. It's what I do to relax in front of the AC after I work all day in a hot welding shop. Do woodworking and blacksmithing in the winter. It would be to expensive to have AC in the barn. But we have tons of mesquite to burn in the winter.
In case you haven't read this one, "The Memoirs of Lt. Henry Timberlake" is another good source on this subject. It's the account of a British officer visiting the Cherokee in the late 18th century. The writing is definitely colored by the author's worldview, but it's easy to sort out his observations from his commentary on them.
We find pieces of trade silver while metal detecting. It’s extremely extremely extremely rare to find. Majority never find it. Better chances of finding. 5ct diamond ring....no joke.
@@T3t4nu5 I found 3, twice at the bottom of a public pool, once just building a sand castle I grabbed a handful of sand. Although they were all just good bands, no diamonds.
Here on the Navajo rez, I find plenty of silver jewelry from the old days, silver buttons, bracelets, lotsa silver coins, even found a hammered Spanish Cobb made into a pendant, early 1600s. Been metal detecting over 20 years now.😃
Probably after the finding of silver in Argentina. It’s well covered in 1493, but my favorite aspect is that Spain flooded the European market for silver and caused massive inflation. Meanwhile, North American and Caribbean colonies were making trade goods there was suddenly lots of silver for. Suddenly the colonies were worth big loot if your country could middleman the trade, and hence you get the French and Indian war.
This was a great topic. What would be awesome is an expansion on the topic with an actual Indigenous American who is familiar with the history of the peoples of the area to add to the experience. Maybe even show off some examples from the era. This is such a great subject to dig deeper into.
Only problem in that is that many of us (Native Americans) have lost an unfathomable amount of our culture, including what you're talking about. We have the US and Canadian governments to thank for that, as well as the Catholic, Presbyterian, and Episcopal churches that built and ran residential schools. My grandfather and his siblings were beaten brutally for speaking their native language or practicing cultural traditions, and as a result, they lost many things. My grandfather spent decades moving around as an adult, pretending to be Mexican so that his own children wouldn't be taken, too. My mother and aunts and uncles mostly can't speak the language either, and know very little of our culture. It was only after the ICWA that Grandpa could stop moving around, but even then, he was careful and very paranoid.
@@MegaKat I was just wondering the other day how much of their culture the native peoples were able to retain, seems like not much. it's really too bad, we all could have learned from the culture that was lost.
@@MegaKat thank you so much for sharing your grandfather's story with me. It is truly horrible what was done to your people. Which is why I feel it is even more important to teach your history. However horrible it was. I believe that history must be taught both the good and the bad. How are we, as a society, to make a better future if we don't learn from the sins of the past? If it makes you uncomfortable all the more likely that you are going to make a change for the better. I love learning about different cultures and peoples. It makes life so much more enriching. So many different ways of seeing the world we live in.
@@SimpleDesertRose I get what you're saying and I agree with it; my point was not to get your hopes up about learning anything at all about pretty much every tribe. Sure, there's a few of the bigger tribes that managed to hold onto shreds of their cultures, but they lost a lot. Tribes like mine, we lost almost everything and nothing was passed down due to the astronomical number of Natives killed off or forced into residential schools, where they were separated from their families so they *couldn't* be taught about their cultures. Trust me, I'd love to learn about my people as well, but there ain't much left to learn when our government made doubly sure to eradicate everything there was to learn.
they arent trying to take anything from you or force you to change your thoughts like so many other channels. they only share knowledge and passion for their hobbies. like youtube used to be, just sharing things you like and having fun.
Maybe because you get away from the hustle and bustle. The visual overload. It is kind of like going way out into the country. For me, driving in the country or hiking does the same, as do his videos.
Honestly wonderful see such incredible representations of history, as part native myself I love to see the branch of trade between both the settlers and the native Americans.
I always love how you share knowledge, and on so many topics! I'm a viking age reenactor, but I love to learn about other time periods, and your channel is one of my favorite places to learn new things. Thank you! All the best from Sweden :)
Ya ta hey Navajo guy, you need to get you a metal detector and roam the rez, old sheep camp sites, it's amazing what you can find, I can start a little museum if want to. I also do Smithing, silver, gold or metal.👋😃
@BLAIR There might be a few that can contend, but I think anyone would be hard pressed to find another channel that has the same sense of community and togetherness that Townsends has!
An openwork heart brooch like that is called a Luckenbooth brooch in Scotland. A lot of them have two hearts together and they range from simple and plain to very fancy. I stumbled upon the Luckenbooth through a page on FB I follow that centers upon the Victorian era less than a week ago. By then the Luckenbooth brooches were someone considered rather old fashioned, but they were still quite popular.
I would love to hear more on the local tribes in the area in the 1700s. The passages about Nicholas Cresswell going in to trade were really interesting. I find the info on how different groups coexisted (or not) super fascinating.
An excellent video, and excellent work with rudimentary tools. One thing that caught my attention was when Brandon mentioned using coin silver, and said it was sterling. While the British pound was sterling silver (92.5% silver), more common was the Spanish dollar (Real, or "piece of eight.") and early US coins, which were 89.24%. So much of the trade silver was less than sterling.
I find it fascinating how it mirrors the British's own history. Thousands of years ago, we were backwater tribes until another, more advanced civilisation came along, and likewise, we would trade for valuable goods like jewellery and other decorative things. One and a half millennia later, and it is we who go to strange backwater lands and trade valuable decorations with the tribes. It seems more or less like the natural way that civilisations develop - the cultural exchange of goods.
Humans have always been trading goods and ideas, taking one’s style and changing and adapting it to their styles and available materials. In the case you’re referencing, there is plenty the Romans borrowed and adapted - especially military and clothing ideas - from the Celts in Gaul, Britannia and Hispania and the Teutonic tribes in Germania, as well as other cultures and corners of the Empire. That’s why the recent idea of ‘cultural appropriation’ to me is absolutely stupid., and much like the Romans we Americans excell at adapting something and making it our thing. For a recent example, I just learned last week what ‘Chinamen’ (St Louis style fried rice) is, and am looking forward to trying some at a local place. I’m from/in the south but have family in St Louis and never heard of it, so that tells me it can’t be that old of a thing (at most a few decades).
A lot of trade with Natives. I know some traders would marry women of my tribe to gain advantages of the family networks. Women in our society had a lot more say and power than settlers as our society was matriarchal.
Mothers know their children in a way that fathers can't. I remember reading that in some first nations' cultures the mother's brother was more important that the presumed father.
@@dbmail545 yes. That's how it was for mine. But the US restructured families under men in the late 1880s to early 1900s. My grandma and great grandparents had to go to mandatory schools and forbidden to speak in our native language. Despite all that our language is still here although most don't speak it. Chahta Anumpa anumpuli la hinla. I can speak some. My grandma taught me some when I lived with her a bit.
I believe the YT channel is "clickspring". A lot of content on how these first-level tools are made and how a complex mechanism like the Antiktheria device is built using them.
Another great episode. I'm so very glad to see a topic about the American Indians. The story of the 18th Century in America cannot be told without them. I hope you will do more. Thank you!
I've heard tell of copper and silver mines in the Great Lakes region that predate the coming of the Europeans, so for certain the First Nations knew the value of metals and used them for decor prior to the Mayflower. Doubtless it varies from nation to nation.
There is evidence that it wasn't just the natives here but those from the ancient Mediterranean as well who mined copper out of the Great lakes area. Really rather fascinating!
I believe it was the bronze cultures around the great lakes, there's a great video about it on here somewhere, but I don't remember the title. Sad to think of how much history on this continent that we'll just never know because of how many oral histories were lost in the native american genocide.
this is why i have enameled pins on my bag, I call them hippy trade silver. people will do a quick favor or turn out cash when you need them for some small trinkets
@@cecilyerker you can get enamel pins from a lot of places for example: etsy, redbubble, online shops run by artists, merch stores (even innersloth sells them!), gift shops, and amazon
Native tribes used copper a lot because North America had huge exposed copper veins mixed with basalt (on the west coast) made it a different color while corroding and might be more resistant. Tribes liked silver because we couldn't smelt yet ( Smaller silver pellets, Stone age people)
@@bigguy7353 i meant photos and drawings depicting native americans wearing metal jewelry. Since they didn’t have the knowledge to work metal in that way I just wondered where they got those items from.
Very cool guys. The right tools make it easier! My friend's dad had an extensive 18th century gun collection, many of which were Indian trade guns with the silver "furniture" to provide the "bling" that they cherished. I also made a reproduction of a 1793 medallion given to the Indians by George Washington showing him offering a clay pipe to a Native. Thanks again for an excellent video!
Brings me back to my junior year of college, when I took a jewelry making class. It would not have worked for what I thought it might for the future, but it was an entire semester of fun for me. And I still have the tools I had to get for the class.
Love this video! I study 18th century contact between Europeans and indigenous people of the Eastern Woodlands and this is excellent delivery of good information!
A book by Gary Brockman, Wearing the Moon: Navajo and Pueblo Silver Buttons, gives a thorough and fascinating account of trade silver in a different time and area.
That was a great trip back in time Jon, thanks for sharing this history lesson with us. The traders back in those days had to learn what was a good product to trade and how to adapt. Thanks again, Fred..🙏🏻🙏🏻👍👍👏🏻👏🏻👋👋
May I suggest, for anyone interested in this topic who will be in the Indianapolis area, the Indiana State Museum. We have some excellent extant examples of trade silver from the Lafayette area, dating from about 1790 to 1820 or so. Mostly arm rings, gorgets and such, some of which have fine etching (very impressive for hand work) of birds and animals to make them more attractive to the native nations in the area.
Such great content about the uniqueness of American culture and the long road we have taken as a nation. However, i feel it must be said that Indigenous Americans have long worked with precious metal, before Europeans arrived. It is known from many artifacts from acorss both continents. Gold, silver, copper, brass, and even iron from meteorites!! And not just in mesoamerica. Across north America.
The indigenous people in the Ohio Valley had been trading for precious metals for centuries if not millennia by the time the Europeans arrived, but didn't have access to the raw metals. In that region, the incoming, venturesome Europeans saved the indigenous people a lot of travel.
fyi-u cant turn coin silver into sterling, like the man said. coin silver has less silver in it and more of the alloy in it then sterling. so to turn it to sterling u would have to add more pure silver in it. I collect old coins and also work with silver jewelry. they r just making coin silver jewelry from coins. but this would not be called sterling. I also collect antique pocket watches and the cases r marked with the coin silver stamp if it is made from old coins since it is less then sterling. yall get what I am saying, I am bad at explaining things over a comment. :). but cool video either way. I just wanted to clarify something the man who was making the piece said. ;)
You are correct in what you say about coin silver, but it's not that straight forward. British coins were sterling silver until 1920, when they were reduced to 50% silver. Given that money was "real back then, nobody particularly cared were coins were from as long as they were of high quality, I think that in colonial frontier America you would have founds lots of British, Spanish, and French coins as well as American coins, and their value would depend on their silver or gold content.
I bought a bunch of silver coins that are 99.9% pure. I bought them in the 1980s. I'm pretty sure they were available back then if people looked for them , not all of the coins sold are currencies of a country. Lots of collectible coins for sale
I am absolutely obsessed with the style of fur trade era sliver ornaments. It is my goal to track down some good Finnish crosses, medicine wheels and such.
Bravo! Great jewelery smithing there. I'm going to college for that stuff and it's so inspiring to watch someone making a piece of jewelery. I love the brooch, great job! I really liked that neat trick you had there with the mini clamp in your hand so you could hold the heart while you worked on filing it smooth. And I loved how you crushed sandy soil down for the use as sand paper. Very cool. I thought at first you were crushing up yellow ochre because we use that when soldering pieces together, you brush yellow ochre dust on places you don't want the solder to flow to. Like a barrier. Solder will not go in dirty areas, it won't stick. But the sanding trick was way cool to see. Thank you for sharing this wonderful piece of history, I loved it. Take care, bye.
Here in Argentina he cut, polish or do anything around the piece in a felt pouch so he could "sweat" the silver remnants. Also, in Spanish, the silversmith´s anvil is called "tas".
Back in the 1700s, Native Americans used to trade wampum beads as currency, then the settlers learned to be as good as the natives at making them, driving down their value... so this led to the USA being formed, partially due to the need for the settlers to have their own currency.
Awesome! You know what y'all remind me of, Boonesboro Village at Camp Daniel Boone, NC. It's a camp within a camp where Boy Scouts can spend the week living a 17th century life making belts, pants, kilts, pottery, knives, shooting blackpowder muskets, and more. I really enjoyed it when I went a fee years ago. Y'all should really check it out and see if you could make an appearance and/or maybe even teach some classes.
The tools are fascinating. And the history is eye opening. I wonder if engineering schools ever study historical tools like the ones used on this channel?
This is so cool. I live in Elwood, Indiana. Not far at all from where you film. I love your show. Keep it up buddy. I love learning about our past. Very neat and informative. 👍
Working with Silver is Whitesmithing as it is one of the bright metals. Blacksmithing requires higher temperatures and often uses the dark, often carbonized black, metals like iron or lead hence the name. Tin and Silver to whitesmiths with much lower temperatures and low soot from low fires. You could never use shears in blacksmithing. They would break. To those who would ask. Yes. Bronze copper and brass would be called redsmithing.
The term "Indian Giver" comes from natives trading with the white man. White men brought everything imaginable to trade but were surprised to find natives were most fascinated by cheap trinkets that they gladly traded for land. Once the natives realized trinkets weren't rare they wanted to re negotiate the trade or trade back.
This term ‘ Indian giver’ is in reference to Native American tradition of sharing a peace pipe. At the end of the ceremony, the pipe would be given to the guest with expectations that the pipe would be brought back upon the next meeting. No one owned the pipe, it was meant to flow smoothly between friends as a symbol of that friendship. When natives expected the pipe back, it’s due to European ignorance is how ‘Indian giver’ originated.
The term is a reference, fair or not, to the natives and their ability to drive a hard bargain and maybe put their thumb on the scale. Stories of horses switched after the trade was settled are known. The original post is incorrect.
.A pleasure as always. I didn't realize that the classic "heart" shape was around at that time. I wonder if that's what they called the shape or did they have a different name for it?
The shape we refer to as a valentine is actually based on the shape of a mammalian heart. People who don't process animals are often unaware of this. They see hearts depicted hyper-realistically in pictures and don't see the similarity.
Native American history is rich. It’s beautiful to learn about, and fascinating to know how intensely intertwined they are to early American history in ways that is not often talked about, like trade silver.
Okay, gentlemen, how did you get that heart pinned to the fabric? My guess is you pulled a large pinch of the fabric through the hole in the heart, then worked some of that punch over the pin as you pulled the fabric back out. I am sure it would take me some time and numerous adjustments to get it looking that nice.
Sterling refers to the fineness of the silver being 925. There were other "standards" for coins depending on the country the coin came from American constitutional silver and Peruvian(during certain years) silver coinage being 900 fineness, Chilean silver coinage was 835 fineness for a while, Mexico at one point had 900 fineness in their silver coins but eventually changed that to 720 fineness. Many different countries had different standards of fineness in their silver so I think its pretty important to denote "sterling" as that's the fineness of the coin. there is even some silver coinage called billon which could have been anywhere from 400 fineness all the way down to 050 fineness. also sterling was the British standard of fineness that's why their currency is called "pounds sterling". Just my 2 copper cents. Have a great day!
Bear in mind Mr Townsend as somebody who is a silversmith and has studied the history of my trade you might be interested to know that silver was not 925 nor was it 99% it was closer to 800 or even 750 back then I'm going back as far as 1800 I think it's closer to 1830 actually silver tended to be 880 you're very rarely got anything that was close to 925 because that would have been a lot of almost pure silver as closest to pure silver as we get these days. Silver tends to be 99.9 that's always a trace amount that isn't quite pure enough that being said you're the silver you would have been using and would have to be heated first and then hammered by heating it you soften the silver and make it easier to cut and shape and there are many other techniques ones I'm quite nice that I have run to master. I don't generally talk about the fact that I was a silversmith because I'm no longer able to do the trade having spinal damage that prevents me from doing it but I thought you would like to know that if your pieces are pure silver then they are anachronistic they don't belong there in 1700 they would not have been entirely pure. It would have been mixed with copper and other alloys simply because even back then silver was very expensive the proof of this pudding is the fact that the shilling just before Elizabeth the first was no longer made out of silver and was not worth as they used to say a brass farthing. It was more common back then to use pewter for decoration and pure is an alloy as well and all depends on how much of other alloys are in it depended on how the silver color how much silver color you would get. So that's one thing like I said your silver would not have been as soft as you're making it look just saying.
1:00 fun fact: the reason hats like that are “pinned” on the side was to allow a soldier to sling their rifle (which would usually have a bayonet affixed) over their shoulder without knocking their hat off.
Yeah I like that style, made for action.
When function meant more than fashion💘
Sometimes that was the case (Like slouch hats in the Aussie military uniforms in the 19th-20th C), but to my knowledge it was originally a civilian fashion first back in the 17th Century, not originally based on military practicality. (If that were the case, elaborate feather plumes likely wouldn't have been commonly included in the pinned assembly ;D )
That is also why minutemen and other soldiers with triangle-shaped hats would wear the point in the front slightly to their left or right. It allowed them to do the same with a bayonetted rifle; by pivoting the points in the back to make the straight part parallel to the rifle.
@@B01 gotta admit though, they’re pretty fashionable too
This took me back to highschool art class where we made rings from a coin. A class of 40 kids hammering coins for a few days was deafening, but having the ring at the end was so rewarding.
@pinned by Townsends Reported, scammer.
@@BobPapadopoulos mission accomplished, good job 👍🏻
Most coins nowadays have a high steel content or are coated steel disks, which definitely makes this endeavour challenging!
You still have the ring?
That would be a great project to try. Might just have to try it! ☺️
Perhaps one of the finest set of regalia I have seen belonged to a young Lakota man (18 or 19 at the time) that had punched the primers out of spent 30-30 rifle cartridges and polished and threaded them individually upon the buckskin fringing of both legs and arms. The remaining work was with porcupine quills and glass trade beads depicting a wolf's head on his back.
Gotta respect the drip
Would love to see a pic of that if possible👍
That sounds freaking awesome.
@@bmookbm Seconded :) That sounds really impressive.
@RUclips Assasin uh oh, someone's got their panties in a twist
Your videos should be mandatory to watch in all our schools. Bringing history to life.
I would have paid more attention in class with this more "living history" type of instruction. I would also say that how everyday life was like in the past is as important to learn as the significant events that schools focus on. The everyday hardship of the past shows just how good we have it now thanks to our forebears and their hard work.
This would be more accurate too. In the south we are taught demonstrably false things as part of history to paint both slavery and the genocide of the native peoples in a better light.
@@misterhat5823 Regrettably, history is too often written to serve the needs & requirements of the present, rather than a true depiction of the past :-(
I have learned more from watching these videos then any of my history teachers that taught about American history
Agreed! Much better than the critical race theory crap!
I love how he used pulverized brick powder as a buffing compound for the silver. I wouldn't have thought of that but it is a good idea.
I’d love to see the process of melting the cutoff scraps back into usable silver. it's neat to see these handcrafts still being used and remembered, Love the video!
@pinned by Townsends Go away, scammer.
the man is an artist of the truest sense, he makes art from chunks of silver and keeps history alive in doing so.
Mr. Revere would approve of his art!
The best Historical Collaboration would be John and Revere. IMAGINE what we’d learn. Great video John.
@@TheWarCorrespondent79 John could teach him a thing or two about military tactics, as great as Paul was he was a horrible general 🤣
@@bostonrailfan2427 Very much agreed hahah!
Brandon is an amazing metal worker. It's so relaxing to watch him pull a piece of history out of raw material like this.
One of my favorite frontier topics. Instant like!
Just so you guys know, y’all are a bad influence LOL. I have signed up for a beginners blacksmithing class! Thanks for the inspiration!
Sounds like a great influence.
How is the blacksmithing going? I am more interested in learning how to source metal from the Earth.
You'll be hooked now... It's addicting.
@@BaptistJoshua Sourcing metal from the earth is extremely difficult. Very very few smiths actually get their metal from ore nowadays. Iron/Steel is almost impossible to smelt (the term for refining ore) on your own and normally requires multiple days and a team of people to accomplish. Lighter metals (copper, silver, etc.) are much easier to refine, but still a lot of work. It is only those who enjoy it as a hobby that do smelting now. And industrial factories that produce metals of course.
@@matthewmason7753 Thanks. How do they get the metal? Like steel oxidizes and rusts away, back into the soil. Can that dust be reused? Or does the Earth have to produce more? I wonder if metal is reproduced by the Earth just like oil is.
I love working with silver. Brass, Copper, and Nickle as well.
It's what I do to relax in front of the AC after I work all day in a hot welding shop.
Do woodworking and blacksmithing in the winter.
It would be to expensive to have AC in the barn.
But we have tons of mesquite to burn in the winter.
I didn't expect it to pin on like that! Nice work Brandon, it's beautiful and practical.
In case you haven't read this one, "The Memoirs of Lt. Henry Timberlake" is another good source on this subject. It's the account of a British officer visiting the Cherokee in the late 18th century. The writing is definitely colored by the author's worldview, but it's easy to sort out his observations from his commentary on them.
Definitely checking this out. Thank you
Colored by his worldview? What do you mean?
We find pieces of trade silver while metal detecting. It’s extremely extremely extremely rare to find. Majority never find it. Better chances of finding. 5ct diamond ring....no joke.
Can confirm, didn't know trade silver was even a thing, but I've found a diamond ring while walking through the parking lot a couple of years ago.
That's amazing. How many diamond rings have you found?
@@T3t4nu5 I found 3, twice at the bottom of a public pool, once just building a sand castle I grabbed a handful of sand. Although they were all just good bands, no diamonds.
Here on the Navajo rez, I find plenty of silver jewelry from the old days, silver buttons, bracelets, lotsa silver coins, even found a hammered Spanish Cobb made into a pendant, early 1600s. Been metal detecting over 20 years now.😃
Our family has a beautiful silver & turquoise squash blossom necklace.
Probably after the finding of silver in Argentina. It’s well covered in 1493, but my favorite aspect is that Spain flooded the European market for silver and caused massive inflation. Meanwhile, North American and Caribbean colonies were making trade goods there was suddenly lots of silver for. Suddenly the colonies were worth big loot if your country could middleman the trade, and hence you get the French and Indian war.
This was a great topic. What would be awesome is an expansion on the topic with an actual Indigenous American who is familiar with the history of the peoples of the area to add to the experience. Maybe even show off some examples from the era. This is such a great subject to dig deeper into.
Only problem in that is that many of us (Native Americans) have lost an unfathomable amount of our culture, including what you're talking about. We have the US and Canadian governments to thank for that, as well as the Catholic, Presbyterian, and Episcopal churches that built and ran residential schools. My grandfather and his siblings were beaten brutally for speaking their native language or practicing cultural traditions, and as a result, they lost many things. My grandfather spent decades moving around as an adult, pretending to be Mexican so that his own children wouldn't be taken, too. My mother and aunts and uncles mostly can't speak the language either, and know very little of our culture. It was only after the ICWA that Grandpa could stop moving around, but even then, he was careful and very paranoid.
@pinned by Townsends Go away, scammer.
@@MegaKat I was just wondering the other day how much of their culture the native peoples were able to retain, seems like not much. it's really too bad, we all could have learned from the culture that was lost.
@@MegaKat thank you so much for sharing your grandfather's story with me. It is truly horrible what was done to your people. Which is why I feel it is even more important to teach your history. However horrible it was. I believe that history must be taught both the good and the bad. How are we, as a society, to make a better future if we don't learn from the sins of the past? If it makes you uncomfortable all the more likely that you are going to make a change for the better. I love learning about different cultures and peoples. It makes life so much more enriching. So many different ways of seeing the world we live in.
@@SimpleDesertRose I get what you're saying and I agree with it; my point was not to get your hopes up about learning anything at all about pretty much every tribe. Sure, there's a few of the bigger tribes that managed to hold onto shreds of their cultures, but they lost a lot. Tribes like mine, we lost almost everything and nothing was passed down due to the astronomical number of Natives killed off or forced into residential schools, where they were separated from their families so they *couldn't* be taught about their cultures.
Trust me, I'd love to learn about my people as well, but there ain't much left to learn when our government made doubly sure to eradicate everything there was to learn.
If I ever make a time machine, I’m bringing Townsend’s as my guide 😂
And as the narrator!
@@erinhowett3630 and the cook! ... gonna have to pay him a lot 🤔😂
Then you'll end up in 3077.
@@BobPapadopoulos Isaac Arthur in that case
@@spacetexan8695
The most adowable speech impediment on RUclips 💜
Finally bro I been waiting for somthing with first nations. Alot of colonists and revolution wouldn't have been possible without natives.
Indians.
Natives bro not Punjabi's..
Whenever Im feeling uneasy Idk why but Townsends makes me relaxed and happy =] Great video!
He’a a real blessing on RUclips
Same here, I always catch myself smiling through these videos.
they arent trying to take anything from you or force you to change your thoughts like so many other channels. they only share knowledge and passion for their hobbies.
like youtube used to be, just sharing things you like and having fun.
Maybe because you get away from the hustle and bustle. The visual overload. It is kind of like going way out into the country. For me, driving in the country or hiking does the same, as do his videos.
Honestly wonderful see such incredible representations of history, as part native myself I love to see the branch of trade between both the settlers and the native Americans.
Yup. One of the cool things about us humans is we love precious metals and things that look good. We also love to trade with each other. Good stuff.
Shiny things appeal to all peoples.
The homestead series is so relaxing to watch! Excellent craftsmanship Brandon!!!
I always love how you share knowledge, and on so many topics! I'm a viking age reenactor, but I love to learn about other time periods, and your channel is one of my favorite places to learn new things. Thank you! All the best from Sweden :)
Know of any great channels on RUclips similar to this one but covering the Viking age?
My Uncles and Grandma (Navajos) knew how to work silver, they all passed away unfortunately. I'll regret never learning their craft.
It's never to late to learn
Ya ta hey Navajo guy, you need to get you a metal detector and roam the rez, old sheep camp sites, it's amazing what you can find, I can start a little museum if want to. I also do Smithing, silver, gold or metal.👋😃
I'm bummed, I don't have time to stop and watch this right now. I can't wait to watch it later!
Same.
Same here this show Rocks!!! *With Nutmeg*
@@II__DAVE__II oh dear
Same here! I'm like, "yay new video!" but I gotta do some dishes first. 😄
@@II__DAVE__II creep
The most wholesome Channel on RUclips
Love it 🙌🙌🙌😊🇩🇪🇩🇪🇩🇪
Are you sure??
@BLAIR There might be a few that can contend, but I think anyone would be hard pressed to find another channel that has the same sense of community and togetherness that Townsends has!
@@BuleBelle are YOU sure ?
@@BuleBelle aber natürlich!
How is it going in Deutschland? I hear the government is really going crazy against the more educated who do not get jabbed.
Wonderful to venture into a new subject in your field of study! Excited to see more history and historians on the subject.
An openwork heart brooch like that is called a Luckenbooth brooch in Scotland. A lot of them have two hearts together and they range from simple and plain to very fancy. I stumbled upon the Luckenbooth through a page on FB I follow that centers upon the Victorian era less than a week ago. By then the Luckenbooth brooches were someone considered rather old fashioned, but they were still quite popular.
I would love to hear more on the local tribes in the area in the 1700s. The passages about Nicholas Cresswell going in to trade were really interesting. I find the info on how different groups coexisted (or not) super fascinating.
I’m native thank you for this video very educational.
What tribe are you? I'm Lakota
@@gnostic268 Navajo and Apache.
Seneca here. Mostly German. I am related to Queen Aliquippa, through her daughter.
I'm part Cherokee, Mohican, and Lenape.
@@tonyholder4326 hmm. I have not heard of Lanape. Do you know who they are closely related to?
Man, I wish I had known John my entire life. What a awesome fella!
An excellent video, and excellent work with rudimentary tools. One thing that caught my attention was when Brandon mentioned using coin silver, and said it was sterling. While the British pound was sterling silver (92.5% silver), more common was the Spanish dollar (Real, or "piece of eight.") and early US coins, which were 89.24%. So much of the trade silver was less than sterling.
I find it fascinating how it mirrors the British's own history. Thousands of years ago, we were backwater tribes until another, more advanced civilisation came along, and likewise, we would trade for valuable goods like jewellery and other decorative things. One and a half millennia later, and it is we who go to strange backwater lands and trade valuable decorations with the tribes.
It seems more or less like the natural way that civilisations develop - the cultural exchange of goods.
Humans have always been trading goods and ideas, taking one’s style and changing and adapting it to their styles and available materials. In the case you’re referencing, there is plenty the Romans borrowed and adapted - especially military and clothing ideas - from the Celts in Gaul, Britannia and Hispania and the Teutonic tribes in Germania, as well as other cultures and corners of the Empire. That’s why the recent idea of ‘cultural appropriation’ to me is absolutely stupid., and much like the Romans we Americans excell at adapting something and making it our thing. For a recent example, I just learned last week what ‘Chinamen’ (St Louis style fried rice) is, and am looking forward to trying some at a local place. I’m from/in the south but have family in St Louis and never heard of it, so that tells me it can’t be that old of a thing (at most a few decades).
I would love to see more videos about the Natives culture, etc on this channel :)
Brandon made a beautiful piece out of that silver. Something that takes time, patience and a lot of attention to detail and he aced it! Bravo!👍❤️
A lot of trade with Natives. I know some traders would marry women of my tribe to gain advantages of the family networks. Women in our society had a lot more say and power than settlers as our society was matriarchal.
Mothers know their children in a way that fathers can't. I remember reading that in some first nations' cultures the mother's brother was more important that the presumed father.
@@dbmail545 yes. That's how it was for mine. But the US restructured families under men in the late 1880s to early 1900s. My grandma and great grandparents had to go to mandatory schools and forbidden to speak in our native language. Despite all that our language is still here although most don't speak it. Chahta Anumpa anumpuli la hinla. I can speak some. My grandma taught me some when I lived with her a bit.
I know this wasn't the point of the video but I'm in awe at that drilling tool. Really ingenious.
It really is very cool
I believe the YT channel is "clickspring". A lot of content on how these first-level tools are made and how a complex mechanism like the Antiktheria device is built using them.
Another great episode. I'm so very glad to see a topic about the American Indians. The story of the 18th Century in America cannot be told without them. I hope you will do more. Thank you!
**Native Americans. "American Indians" are Indian Americans, with roots in India. (:
@@msmltvcktl Apologies! You are absolutely correct! Thank you for pointing that out.
Love your outdoor presentations now.
Because the woods are always old-timey.
I've heard tell of copper and silver mines in the Great Lakes region that predate the coming of the Europeans, so for certain the First Nations knew the value of metals and used them for decor prior to the Mayflower. Doubtless it varies from nation to nation.
Still very cool to know about!
There is evidence that it wasn't just the natives here but those from the ancient Mediterranean as well who mined copper out of the Great lakes area. Really rather fascinating!
I believe it was the bronze cultures around the great lakes, there's a great video about it on here somewhere, but I don't remember the title. Sad to think of how much history on this continent that we'll just never know because of how many oral histories were lost in the native american genocide.
@@KaikanoSei ...what?
I'm not sure about copper as decor, but all the Anishinaabe peoples used it for making tools. It's a cinch they had it on hand.
this is why i have enameled pins on my bag, I call them hippy trade silver. people will do a quick favor or turn out cash when you need them for some small trinkets
Where do you obtain the pins
@@cecilyerker you can get enamel pins from a lot of places
for example: etsy, redbubble, online shops run by artists, merch stores (even innersloth sells them!), gift shops, and amazon
@@ccaffie1231 Making them is also an option! I've had a chance to make some cool ones with a button press
Native tribes used copper a lot because North America had huge exposed copper veins mixed with basalt (on the west coast) made it a different color while corroding and might be more resistant. Tribes liked silver because we couldn't smelt yet ( Smaller silver pellets, Stone age people)
I always wondered where the images of native americans with silver decorations came from. Really interesting.
The images came from artists. You really didn't know that?
@@bigguy7353 i meant photos and drawings depicting native americans wearing metal jewelry. Since they didn’t have the knowledge to work metal in that way I just wondered where they got those items from.
Very cool guys. The right tools make it easier! My friend's dad had an extensive 18th century gun collection, many of which were Indian trade guns with the silver "furniture" to provide the "bling" that they cherished. I also made a reproduction of a 1793 medallion given to the Indians by George Washington showing him offering a clay pipe to a Native. Thanks again for an excellent video!
Brings me back to my junior year of college, when I took a jewelry making class. It would not have worked for what I thought it might for the future, but it was an entire semester of fun for me. And I still have the tools I had to get for the class.
Love this video! I study 18th century contact between Europeans and indigenous people of the Eastern Woodlands and this is excellent delivery of good information!
A book by Gary Brockman, Wearing the Moon: Navajo and Pueblo Silver Buttons, gives a thorough and fascinating account of trade silver in a different time and area.
The Iroquois liked hearts and luckenbooths
As a coin collector, this is very interesting. I like proto-money from times gone by.
That was a great trip back in time Jon, thanks for sharing this history lesson with us. The traders back in those days had to learn what was a good product to trade and how to adapt. Thanks again, Fred..🙏🏻🙏🏻👍👍👏🏻👏🏻👋👋
I'm so glad I found this channel. So many great videos.
May I suggest, for anyone interested in this topic who will be in the Indianapolis area, the Indiana State Museum. We have some excellent extant examples of trade silver from the Lafayette area, dating from about 1790 to 1820 or so. Mostly arm rings, gorgets and such, some of which have fine etching (very impressive for hand work) of birds and animals to make them more attractive to the native nations in the area.
Hello from Detroit Michigan brother thank you for what you do and for sharing your knowledge and expertise and adventure
Such great content about the uniqueness of American culture and the long road we have taken as a nation. However, i feel it must be said that Indigenous Americans have long worked with precious metal, before Europeans arrived. It is known from many artifacts from acorss both continents. Gold, silver, copper, brass, and even iron from meteorites!! And not just in mesoamerica. Across north America.
The indigenous people in the Ohio Valley had been trading for precious metals for centuries if not millennia by the time the Europeans arrived, but didn't have access to the raw metals. In that region, the incoming, venturesome Europeans saved the indigenous people a lot of travel.
fyi-u cant turn coin silver into sterling, like the man said. coin silver has less silver in it and more of the alloy in it then sterling. so to turn it to sterling u would have to add more pure silver in it. I collect old coins and also work with silver jewelry. they r just making coin silver jewelry from coins. but this would not be called sterling. I also collect antique pocket watches and the cases r marked with the coin silver stamp if it is made from old coins since it is less then sterling. yall get what I am saying, I am bad at explaining things over a comment. :). but cool video either way. I just wanted to clarify something the man who was making the piece said. ;)
Yes sterling has to be 92.5% pure silver hence the 925 mark
You are correct in what you say about coin silver, but it's not that straight forward. British coins were sterling silver until 1920, when they were reduced to 50% silver. Given that money was "real back then, nobody particularly cared were coins were from as long as they were of high quality, I think that in colonial frontier America you would have founds lots of British, Spanish, and French coins as well as American coins, and their value would depend on their silver or gold content.
No, but you can make coin blanks out of sterling, and he did say he was using sterling coinage.
I bought a bunch of silver coins that are 99.9% pure. I bought them in the 1980s. I'm pretty sure they were available back then if people looked for them , not all of the coins sold are currencies of a country. Lots of collectible coins for sale
"You can't turn coin silver into sterling... but you can turn coin silver into sterling."
Thanks Brandon! Interesting to see the variety of clamps used.
Such a TALENTED artist ! 🎶
This episode made me so nostalgic, loved it!
I am absolutely obsessed with the style of fur trade era sliver ornaments. It is my goal to track down some good Finnish crosses, medicine wheels and such.
Always delightful, the toe-tapping happy music...
Hi from Syracuse NY and thank you for sharing brother
Bravo! Great jewelery smithing there. I'm going to college for that stuff and it's so inspiring to watch someone making a piece of jewelery. I love the brooch, great job! I really liked that neat trick you had there with the mini clamp in your hand so you could hold the heart while you worked on filing it smooth. And I loved how you crushed sandy soil down for the use as sand paper. Very cool. I thought at first you were crushing up yellow ochre because we use that when soldering pieces together, you brush yellow ochre dust on places you don't want the solder to flow to. Like a barrier. Solder will not go in dirty areas, it won't stick. But the sanding trick was way cool to see. Thank you for sharing this wonderful piece of history, I loved it. Take care, bye.
Excellent video. Loved watching the process, Brandon did a great job!
I absolutely love watching your videos. Everything from the topics you cover to the editing is done so well.
Lewis and Clark understood the trinket value very well.
Here in Argentina he cut, polish or do anything around the piece in a felt pouch so he could "sweat" the silver remnants. Also, in Spanish, the silversmith´s anvil is called "tas".
Thank you for sharing one of my frontier topics. Love your descriptions.
Back in the 1700s, Native Americans used to trade wampum beads as currency, then the settlers learned to be as good as the natives at making them, driving down their value... so this led to the USA being formed, partially due to the need for the settlers to have their own currency.
Excellent production. I’m going to go try to make a silver trinket myself now.
4:29 Now _that_ is what we call fine elegance, or "drip" as kids these days call it...
Awesome! You know what y'all remind me of, Boonesboro Village at Camp Daniel Boone, NC. It's a camp within a camp where Boy Scouts can spend the week living a 17th century life making belts, pants, kilts, pottery, knives, shooting blackpowder muskets, and more. I really enjoyed it when I went a fee years ago. Y'all should really check it out and see if you could make an appearance and/or maybe even teach some classes.
Wow, that was amazing! Very nice pin or clasp, whatever you would call it, it is beautiful!!
Typical, you're all set up to record your video and the neighbor starts hammering on his anvil!
😄 😅👍
Don't know where you found that anvil,the top is in such awesome condition it makes me jealous!Super nice,my compliments!
Just what I’ve been waiting for! Something regarding native Americans!
Helpful to know when common currency is basically worthless.
Although people are more likely to value net weigh over craftsmanship nowadays just so you know
Ok, but you can’t eat or defend yourself with money. You need money to do those things though.
when that happens your skills will become your worth
Many people will not have a place at the campfire if the lights go off and the fires go up
@@ProboscusMonke yeah, old people like me will die off easily
I love this channel, I would love to see something similar about Europe.
Look into "Time Team".
Archeological digs that talk about the people who inhabited the sites they explore in mostly Britain.
@@elenavaccaro339 Thank you, I'll give it a look
The tools are fascinating.
And the history is eye opening.
I wonder if engineering schools ever study historical tools like the ones used on this channel?
This is so cool. I live in Elwood, Indiana. Not far at all from where you film. I love your show. Keep it up buddy. I love learning about our past. Very neat and informative. 👍
That really does look good. That's amazing he could do that with such simple tools.
Working with Silver is Whitesmithing as it is one of the bright metals. Blacksmithing requires higher temperatures and often uses the dark, often carbonized black, metals like iron or lead hence the name. Tin and Silver to whitesmiths with much lower temperatures and low soot from low fires.
You could never use shears in blacksmithing. They would break.
To those who would ask. Yes. Bronze copper and brass would be called redsmithing.
I'm glad you made this i've been trying to learn more about the indigenous peoples of NE America inthe 17th century
The term "Indian Giver" comes from natives trading with the white man. White men brought everything imaginable to trade but were surprised to find natives were most fascinated by cheap trinkets that they gladly traded for land. Once the natives realized trinkets weren't rare they wanted to re negotiate the trade or trade back.
This term ‘ Indian giver’ is in reference to Native American tradition of sharing a peace pipe. At the end of the ceremony, the pipe would be given to the guest with expectations that the pipe would be brought back upon the next meeting. No one owned the pipe, it was meant to flow smoothly between friends as a symbol of that friendship. When natives expected the pipe back, it’s due to European ignorance is how ‘Indian giver’ originated.
Wait so the Europeans created the term ‘Indian giver’ and then didn’t know what it meant? I’m confused lol
@@memecki sounds fake compared to original comment
The term is a reference, fair or not, to the natives and their ability to drive a hard bargain and maybe put their thumb on the scale. Stories of horses switched after the trade was settled are known. The original post is incorrect.
.A pleasure as always. I didn't realize that the classic "heart" shape was around at that time. I wonder if that's what they called the shape or did they have a different name for it?
The shape we refer to as a valentine is actually based on the shape of a mammalian heart. People who don't process animals are often unaware of this. They see hearts depicted hyper-realistically in pictures and don't see the similarity.
Very nice to see. Thank you!
Native American history is rich. It’s beautiful to learn about, and fascinating to know how intensely intertwined they are to early American history in ways that is not often talked about, like trade silver.
I learn something everyday ... who knew?
Amazing work, Brandon!
Thanks for putting the spy glass on this topic. Very interesting.
This is very fascinating. Cheers!
Another great and informative video. Thank you.
Excellent video !!! 😊
Okay, gentlemen, how did you get that heart pinned to the fabric? My guess is you pulled a large pinch of the fabric through the hole in the heart, then worked some of that punch over the pin as you pulled the fabric back out. I am sure it would take me some time and numerous adjustments to get it looking that nice.
Love this. Very, very good!
This is really interesting! Thank you for sharing.
Awesome video. Absolutely love the technique. The only little thing I would avoid is calling coin silver sterling. Truly awesome video
Sterling refers to the fineness of the silver being 925. There were other "standards" for coins depending on the country the coin came from American constitutional silver and Peruvian(during certain years) silver coinage being 900 fineness, Chilean silver coinage was 835 fineness for a while, Mexico at one point had 900 fineness in their silver coins but eventually changed that to 720 fineness. Many different countries had different standards of fineness in their silver so I think its pretty important to denote "sterling" as that's the fineness of the coin. there is even some silver coinage called billon which could have been anywhere from 400 fineness all the way down to 050 fineness. also sterling was the British standard of fineness that's why their currency is called "pounds sterling".
Just my 2 copper cents. Have a great day!
Gr8 topic thank you. Would love to learn more about copper, brass and beads if you could.
Wow! This is one of the best videos you’ve ever done!!! ♥️
That pin is adorable.
Bear in mind Mr Townsend as somebody who is a silversmith and has studied the history of my trade you might be interested to know that silver was not 925 nor was it 99% it was closer to 800 or even 750 back then I'm going back as far as 1800 I think it's closer to 1830 actually silver tended to be 880 you're very rarely got anything that was close to 925 because that would have been a lot of almost pure silver as closest to pure silver as we get these days. Silver tends to be 99.9 that's always a trace amount that isn't quite pure enough that being said you're the silver you would have been using and would have to be heated first and then hammered by heating it you soften the silver and make it easier to cut and shape and there are many other techniques ones I'm quite nice that I have run to master. I don't generally talk about the fact that I was a silversmith because I'm no longer able to do the trade having spinal damage that prevents me from doing it but I thought you would like to know that if your pieces are pure silver then they are anachronistic they don't belong there in 1700 they would not have been entirely pure. It would have been mixed with copper and other alloys simply because even back then silver was very expensive the proof of this pudding is the fact that the shilling just before Elizabeth the first was no longer made out of silver and was not worth as they used to say a brass farthing. It was more common back then to use pewter for decoration and pure is an alloy as well and all depends on how much of other alloys are in it depended on how the silver color how much silver color you would get. So that's one thing like I said your silver would not have been as soft as you're making it look just saying.
Leticia Morgan.STFU.
I have a Great Friend who is a Silversmither, Cousin Dave from Illinois, have a number of pieces Trade Silver, my English Bodice is covered
Great video. Awesome first piece Brandon.