Right foot, one of a pair. This pair of child's moccasins is made with buckskin uppers and rawhide soles. There are high ankle flaps. The front of each foot has red-dyed quillwork in linear strips. There is a beadwork strip around each moccasin where the upper meets the sole.There is a vertical strip running from the sole to the ankle at the back of the moccasin. That beadwork consists of a series of triangles interspersed with small red squares or a line of red beads. The background of the beading is white. The beading is executed with the lazy stitch using Italian glass seed beads. There are traces of red and yellow ochre on the buckskin of the uppers. Some of the yellow ocher appears to be green, possibly the result of interaction with the red-dyed quills. The red dye may be commercial. A band of red trade cloth goes around each moccasin at the base of the ankle flaps. The top of the ankles are cut in zigzags. Buckskin thongs are used to tie the moccasins closed on the ankle flaps.
Captain Stephen Olop (1879-1974) worked as a federal agent under Indian Services as superintendent of construction for Native American Indian Schools. He is documented at the Rosebud Indian School (1913-14) and the Ute Navajo Springs Agency (1915-16). He later served in the U.S. Army during World War I. He loaned a large number of American Indian objects to History Colorado. Accession records indicate some objects were received for a loan in 1915, 1918, others in 1924. In 1949, he gifted 30 objects to History Colorado. The remainder was later converted in 1958 after multiple attempts to reach him. In 1965, he formally gifted the remainder, although in 1969 Olop requested some financial compensation. Payment of $1500 was made to him. He collected items from reservations and purchased others from young military officers who fought in conflicts often referred to as the “Indian Wars”.