So I made a thing...
This is based on a unique artifact in, or that was in, the Musee du quai Branly, Paris, shown here:
[R.S. Stephenson, "The Decorative Art of Securing Captives in the Eastern Woodlands," in
Three Centuries of Woodlands Indian Art: A Collection of Essays, 1st ed., King, J.C.H., and Feest, Christian, ed.; ( Zkf Pub, 2007), 63.]
The original strap is decorated with quillwork, cones, and deerhair tassels in the same manner in which other means of securing captives, ropes and collars (see here if you don't know what I'm talking about:
https://www.heinzhistorycenter.org/blog/fort-pitt-museum-bound-by-tradition-prisoner-restraints-in-the-captive-experience/), so it seems likely that this is also a prisoner tie of some sort. It is kind of hard to think of what else it could have been used for...
Here is mine. It is approximately 16 feet long and 3/4" wide, made from eights strands of 170lb hemp twine.
Mine isn't an exact copy by any means - the original was made from much smaller cordage and probably used the oblique weave instead of the diagonal weave and of course mine has no decoration. I also had to guesstimate the location of the "button holes," and then didn't get all of them placed precisely where I intended. I'm not too concerned with that, though, as the project was mostly done as a means of finding something to do away from the computer with stuff I could buy cheaply at the local store, all my stuff being in storage in another state at the time. The twine came from Walmart, and I can't say that I can recommend it - their smaller stuff is OK, but the 170lb twine is
very inconsistent in size, making it very difficult to weave neatly.
With the decoration on the ends of the original, the ends would be very difficult to pass through the buttonholes, so I suspect that the intention was to pull a loop through, like in the last two photographs. Beyond that I haven't figured out it was intended to be used - the pattern of buttonholes is asymmetrical, and there isn't one in the direct middle of the strap, so either they were making the holes very much at random or whoever made it had a very specific idea of how it was to be used.
It doesn't have much practical purpose for me these days, (though it might be handy if I ever have to get my nieces and nephew to sit still for more than 90 seconds) but it was kind of a fun project. Hopefully someone will find it interesting.
