Well,this is a work in progress I am having trouble with the mesh....grrrr Here is the history of the RedRiver blanket ... (I will model the saddle as well next) "Allied with the westward-expanding fur trade the me'tis derived part of their income from the manufacture of garments and implements for the trading posts as well as for their own trading expiditions.On the plains,they became involved in a large-scale production of horse gear.In 1800,a trader noted that saddles were made by personnel of the North West Company.The widespread trade in these saddles was implied by Francois Larocque in 1805,who found the Crow indians using saddles"such as the Canadians make in the North-West Country." Who these North west Company men and Canadians were becomes clear from pictures made by Paul Kane in 1846,showing"Halfbreeds running buffalo," all of them using identical saddles. Even more convincing is the field sketch made by Frank Mayer in 1851 entitled"Red River saddle." In the same year, Friederich Kurz was on the Upper Missouri, where he met Red River me'tis and made a sketch entitled"Halfbreed bridle and saddle."