Hiawatha Play, Wedding Feast, Pipe Dance: Two Men in Costume Before Birchbark Tipi JUL 1905

Images

Introduction

Two actors in the Hiawatha pageant appear to be dualing outside a birchbark teepee, both wearing Plains style fringed buckskin and feathered headdresses.

Nation of Maker: Anishinaabe

Nation of Origin

Could be Ojibwe and/or Odawa - both played in the pageant together.

Date Made or Date Range: 1905

Seasonal time
English: Summer

Summary of Source(s) for this Relative

CW.

Read More About This Relative

Materials

Photocopy of Black and white photomechanical 5" by 7" print.

Motifs and Patterns

Two actors in Plains style gear includng feathered headdresses and fringed shirts and leggings with geometric beadwork panels.

Dimensions: 0 × 0 × 0 mm

Reasons for connecting this relative with particular times, materials, styles and uses

In NAA title
Hiawatha pageant was performed mainly in July and August.

Provenance

Current Location: National Anthropological Archives - National Museum of Natural History (Smithsonian)

Catalogue, Accession or Reference Number: NAA INV 00258801 SPC

Link to Institution's Collections Database: siris-archives.si.edu

Date Relative was First Removed or Collected from its Community Context: 1903-1914

Collection Narratives and Histories

Unknown. NAA record suggests that this image may belong to the series by Charles Milton Bell of the Sault St. Marie pageant (MS 4560). Three things suggest this is so: 1) the long fringy bib and short fringed hem on the man on the left's shirt; 2) the birch bark and mat tipi style; and 3) the background foliage.

About This GRASAC Record

GKS Reference Number: 1506

Approximate Place of Origin

44.2, -84.4

Source of Information about Places

Judging from the costumes, this is an early version of the Hiawatha pageant before it had spread very far from its origin around the Sault.

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