Why is This “Fringe” Found All Over Western Wear?

Mountain man reenactor dressed in buckskins. Photo by Robert Lawton, shared under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 Generic

When I write, I tend to focus on topics that I have at least some level of expertise in — global security lately, but also intermittent fasting from time to time.

However, occasionally I’ll be struck with a burning question that sends me down the internet rabbit hole.

Last night, I was watching a documentary about the Lewis and Clark Expedition, officially called the Corps of Discovery, that started in May of 1804.

Throughout the video, the filmmakers kept showing historic etchings of frontiersmen, mountain men, and Native Americans.

These drawings were contemporary to the time, implying that what they depicted was historically accurate, at least marginally.

It was seeing one of these on-screen images that created a tiny spark of electricity somewhere in the back of my brain:

“Lewis & Clark at Three Forks,” mural in lobby of Montana House of Representatives. (Credit: Edgar Samuel Paxson) Although not mentioned in the painting title, Sacagawea is also pictured.

Wait a minute! Everyone in this historically accurate painting has fringe, or quills dangling from their buckskin outfits!

For years, I just assumed that this fringe was a tacky “western-ish” decoration added to cowboy clothes in the 1950s, during the boom of the cowboy…