Crazy Crow Trading Post is the world’s premier source for Native American & Historical Reenactment craft supplies. Starting as one silversmith selling at pow wows, their business has flourished into a sprawling office & warehouse complex covering 41,000 sq. feet – complete with office and warehouse facilities!
CCTP’s roots in pow-wow culture brought it in contact with frontier and mountain man reenactors whose material culture also shares many similar traditions.
Beads
As the summer powwow, rendezvous, and historic reenactment season gets underway, Crazy Crow is pleased to offer bead workers essential items needed for their regalia, such as beads from Venice-made reproductions, making an excellent addition for traditional Native American dance regalia as well as fur trade era rendezvous outfits and accessories.
These beads come in an extensive selection of sizes and colors. There are also many different-shaped beads, such as oval, square, rectangular, and round designs, making these very versatile beads suitable for all forms of beadwork. In addition, various finishes, such as glossy finishes and matte or dull ones, are available to you when purchasing beads for beadwork projects.
Indian bead workers find oblong-shaped beads appealing, enabling them to create more consistent necklaces and wands. Most oblong-shaped beads have flat surfaces, while some feature rounded shapes for more significant reversibility; oblong-shaped beads make excellent choker beads!
Spherical beads are another staple in Native American beadwork, often used in necklaces, bracelets, and earrings. These round beads with holes running through their centers are popularly found as necklace pendants or earrings and come in an array of colors and finishes.
Crazy Crow also carries an impressive selection of genuine bone and horn beads in various sizes and styles, perfect for creating chokers, tassels, and other beaded jewelry items. Available in an array of colors, Native Americans often utilize these beads as an alternative to glass beads in beadwork projects.
Leather
Crazy Crow is the premier provider of Native American Indian and Mountain Man supplies, clothing, and gear. Their products include beading supplies, craft kits, horn work supplies, furs feathers, drumsticks, knife blades & knife-making supplies, and hard-to-find items needed to create Powwow regalia Rendezvous outfits or Reenactment outfits.
Ginger Reddick, co-owner of Crazy Crow with husband Rex Reddick, is an enrolled Comanche and has been attending dances and pow-wows since the 1960s. She is an accomplished silversmith, quill worker, bead worker, and bead worker. Rex Reddick is an active Horn Guild and Contemporary Longrifle Association member and has become proficient at building muzzleloading rifles and powder horns.
At Crazy Crow, they balance being homey and professional without falling into Etsy-esque quaintness. Their website and purchase interactions evoke the feeling of dealing with a family business while providing all the features you require to complete your transaction smoothly: product search, shopping cart, and check-out systems that are user-friendly as well as tracking features – essential features when dealing with mail order companies like this one! Plus, their products are top quality while affordable.
Feathers
Feathers are essential for many Native American craft projects (such as fan work, gourd rattles, hat decorations, and scalp feathers) or for creating costumes. You can purchase feathers from different types of birds, including duck, goose, pheasant, turkey, and quail. Feathers come in an assortment of colors and sizes. Feathers are also commonly used in arts and crafts projects such as floral arrangements and hair decorations.
Finding the appropriate feathers can be challenging. To select suitable ones for your project, it’s essential that you know which types are needed and their intended use; for instance, feathers used on skirts tend to be longer and straighter than those meant for headdresses.
Feathers serve multiple functions. Primarily, they protect birds from predators and other threats while simultaneously doing to attract mates and help blend in with their environment. Some feathers even mimic dead leaves to reduce visibility to potential predators.
They must first be matched, straightened, and trimmed for optimal use of feathers. One way of accomplishing this task is to lay them out shiny side up with their polished sides facing away and determine which are “lefts” and which “rights,” using indicators like the shape of a feather or whether more webbing exists on one side versus the other.
Trim your feathers to your desired length, adding 1 to 4 fluffs if using them for the fan. After straightening and trimming, pin each feather securely using needle nose pliers and two or three straight pins; this allows for greater control when positioning each feather before gluing it in place.
Blankets
A blanket is a large piece of cloth designed to keep warm. It can be made of any fabric imaginable, such as wool and fleece. Knitting and crocheting techniques may also be employed; there may even be stuffing added for extra insulation. Blankets can be found as bedding or decorations in stores or online.
Pendleton Woolen Mills first started producing trade blankets with their designer drawing inspiration from Native American baskets, pottery, and weavings and traveling extensively, visiting Navajo and Zuni tribes to assess what designs were most preferred among them. His design filter allowed him to incorporate elements from several cultures into one blanket design known commercially as Indian blankets.
Indian blankets remain a potent symbol of Native American identity in everyday life. From gifts given and worn as robes by men and women alike to help as reminders of how far Native Americans have come since European contact, Indian blankets remain an iconic representation of indigenous identity and pride.
At any powwow, trade blankets (particularly Pendletons) are regularly used in ceremonies. Women wear colorful shawls, while men use them to keep their place while singing or dancing in the arena. As an act of respect and appreciation for those serving, these gifts are given as recognition of their contributions by chairmen, arena directors, and head dancers/singers as an acknowledgment of their importance within the community – their beauty and warmth make these an honorable token to show respect among Native Americans for one another.
Books
Crazy Crow offers an expansive selection of books about Native American tribes, crafts, and culture – an invaluable resource for anyone curious to gain more knowledge in this area. Crazy Crow offers books on these subjects and links to websites where more can be learned about these subjects. Rex Reddick, our company’s co-owner, has extensive knowledge of Native American and Buckskinner culture, having participated in pow-wows and muzzleloading activities since the 1960s. Additionally, he holds membership with both Horn Guild and Contemporary Longrifle Association. He and Ginger run Crazy Crow Trading Post in Lawton, Oklahoma, as experienced silversmiths, bead workers, quill workers, horn crafters, and authors of several books covering such subjects – these can be found under the Book section on their website.