Circa 1900, to include an adult's pair of deer hide moccasins with felt and quill decoration (10 in.) (supple hide with minor losses throughout)...plus: a child's pair of moccasins with blue, green and red beads (light age staining).

Adult moccasins 10 x 5-1/2 in.

From the Collection of Indian Agent Charles Edwin Kelsey (1861-1936).

C. E. Kelsey is a frequently mentioned but largely unknown figure in the unique
history of Indian-white relations in California. As an officer of the Northern California
Indian Association (NCIA) and a special agent for the Office of Indian Affairs, he
altered the landscape for California Indians in the early 1900s. He was recently
credited as “the official in the [Indian] Bureau who had the deepest knowledge of the
condition of California Indians at the time—a man who had unparalleled personal
experience of the contemporary life of virtually every tribal group of Native
Californians and had written extensively and eloquently on the practical and moral
obligation of the government to redress the atrocious wrongs suffered by California
Indians.”