Bead by bead, piece by piece, the work of Crow designer Brocade Stops Black Eagle is a labor of love.
Brocade Stops Black Eagle (Crow, Mandan, Hidatsa) is a busy woman. Wife, mother, trail runner, and businesswoman, she was born and raised on the Crow Indian Reservation and worked as a registered nurse in her Native community of Crow Agency, Montana, for more than a decade. An outdoor enthusiast, she’s a mountain ultra trail runner who has completed several ultramarathons. She also runs her own ready-to-wear company, whose pieces are inspired by old Crow geometric designs and color palettes that reflect her beadwork and lifestyle. She learned beading from her mother, a seamstress, at a young age and has been honing her craft for over 30 years. Now a master beader, she creates one-of-a-kind regalia for her family and the horses they ride when they parade. At any given time, she might be working on martingales, bridles, keyhole ornaments, old-time saddles, and more.
Photographer Erika Haight traveled to Crow Agency, where Brocade lives with her husband and three sons, to photograph her and her work and talk about beading, parading, and their significance in Crow culture. “With snow on the ground and the family assisting with loading while she gathered her belongings, we did the interview at her house and then trailered the horses about a mile or so to the banks of the Little Big Horn River for our shoot,” Haight says. “I am amazed every time I am witness to such an event. It’s like a masterpiece being created right before your eyes. The care, time, and incredible details that go into fitting their loved ones — each individual piece is meticulously layered on both horse and rider.”
We invite you to share in the masterpiece through Haight’s photographs and Brocade’s words.
Where Her Name Comes From
My mom saw a story in Vogue magazine. I think it was an article about a lady whose name was Brocade, and my mom loved that. She loved sewing, and she loved brocade fabric, and she was like, “I never thought of naming someone after fabric.”
Learning To Bead
We see beadwork everywhere — Crow Fair, dances, the parade. I love the parade. Just seeing everyone on their horses, all decked out, looking beautiful in their beadery. I just love it. So beading has always been around. I learned as a kid. I would stay in during the summers with my grandmother. First she would clean her house, and then she’d sit there and have her coffee, and then she would bead. I’m not like that — I don’t clean my house first — but I had that exposure. You’re running around in the morning, you go outside, it gets hot, you’re back in, and she’s still sitting there beading. I’d sit there and watch her and was really interested in it. I would ask her questions: “What size needles?” “What thread?” “What are you working on?” That exposure really helped. Then, [when] my sister wanted to parade and dance, we started with nothing. Me and my mother were like, “You know we don’t got anything. We don’t want to bother anyone. Let’s just do it ourselves.” So my mom was all on it. We asked community members how to bead stuff, and they would share how they did it. Then we just figured it out ourselves.
What Inspires Her
What really speaks to me is the old Crow designs. That’s what I love. I like the shapes they use, the colors, how they outlined everything in white or navy blue. I’ve also seen that dark forest green color they outlined stuff with too. I just liked how they used the patterns and the colors to really make the design ... what’s the word I’m looking for? ... Pop.
About Her Process
My mother always said to do two light and two dark, and then put a light and a dark against each other, and that really makes the design come out. So I really always remember that and try to choose two dark and two light. And then I sit, and I’ll put my needles down, and I’m just like, “I’m going to try this and try this.” Sometimes it doesn’t look good, and I’ll take it out and start over because I think about something else that’ll make it look better. Sometimes I’ll go for a run, and designs come to me. They’ve come in my dreams. For instance, my husband’s parade outfit — I had a dream about it. As soon as I woke up, I drew it. And then I was like, “You know, that’s a special design. I’m going to do it for my husband.”
How Long Does It Take?
The No. 1 question I get every time is, “How long did it take you?” I don’t time it. I think the only thing I’ve actually really timed was making my husband’s fully beaded vest, and that took me about a month. But that was sitting down 12 hours a day. Yeah, from sunup to sundown, I would not leave that couch. I’d watch TV. I was sitting there forever, but I got it done.
Beware The Couch
Right now the couch is clean compared to what it usually is. Usually, there’s threads and needles and everything over there. When people sit down, I’m like, “Don’t touch. Don’t touch that! You’re going to get stabbed. It’s going to stab you. It’s going to stab you.” So they know now, and they’re like, “Don’t mess with Mom’s area.” Except for the cat. He loves going around there. He hasn’t learned yet. He just jumps around stuff. But they know not to sit there. That’s my area.
Cradling Babies
I beaded a cradle board for each one of my three sons. I started after I found out I was pregnant and got their cradle board done by the time they were about 6 months old. I love cradle boards. Cradle boards are my favorite item to bead. You can mix and match your designs and do whatever you want, which is why as a designer I like them. You don’t have to get tired of beading the same thing over and over because you can just do so many different things. Then when you see your baby in there — honestly, the babies love it. I put my kids in there, and I’m like, “Okay, we get a photo shoot.” And you’re like, “Oh, man, we got to wrap them up and stick them in there, and we got to get a photo right there — hurry up, hurry up.” But my kids just loved it. They would be so happy just looking around, and they would even fall asleep. It’s amazing how they just loved it. I love that because it’s the beginning of their life, and you get a picture, and that’s really important to me.
Outfitting Horses
We call it the old-time saddle. The old-time saddle has those pretty big horns on each side. There are many key pieces. We bead the top of the saddle, and two ornaments hang down from it. We also bead a part on the stirrups. At the front, there’s the keyhole ornament, which goes on the forehead of the horse. We bead the reins, which you connect to the keyhole, and then you tie it around the neck, right on the nose. At the front of the horse is the martingale, or breast collar. On the front, the cradle board hangs from the right side, and the purse or a shield is on the left. At the back, the warbonnet case hangs on the left, and the lance case is on the right. In the back, tied to the bottom of the back horn, buckskin saddlebags and rawhide saddlebags hang on both sides. There’s a crupper at the rump of the horse that loops under the tail to keep the saddle from slipping forward. There’s a saddle blanket, and you sit on mountain-lion hide.
What Beadwork Means To The Crow People
I was actually able to go to the Autry Museum last year and look at beadwork there, which was really special. I came to the conclusion that beadwork is the way that we showed our love for our people. Even now I’ll hear it — when somebody goes by, and they see someone all in their beadwork, they’re like, “That person’s really loved.” I’ve heard that several times. When we were roaming the plains, think about all the work women did. They did everything. They put the tepee up. They cooked. They raised their kids while our men were out hunting and going to war and protecting us. They did everything. Just think about the time that they took away from all of that to do all this beadwork. Back then they didn’t even have all the amenities that we have now, like an air conditioner, TV, even just a comfortable couch. I’ve seen pictures where they’d be outside, just sitting on the ground, beading. It was really cool. So, that’s what it means to me — it shows the love I have for my family. I love seeing them use my stuff. I don’t know what it is. I can’t explain it. It’s just a sense of pride. It’s the way I show my love because I like to see them in what I’ve made. Seeing them ride by, it’s just a beautiful thing.
This article appears in our February/March 2024 issue.
Visit Brocade Stops Black Eagle at brocadesdesigns.com.
PHOTOGRAPHY: Erika Haight
