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message belt
message belt
message belt
A quillwork message belt. Anishinaabe or Cree, made sometime between 1750 and 1812. Donated to the British Museum in 1935 by Miss Dollman.
The quillwork suggests it is Anishinaabe. However, the British Museum object catalogue lists this item as Plains.
Created from information in the British Museum object catalogue and observations made by the GRASAC research team.
Read More About This Relative
Coarse red stroud; pony beads, white size 8; porcupine quills, natural and dyes red (faded to orange) and black; hide thong; vegetable fibre or sinew thread; silk ribbon, black.
The belt's base is a coarse red stroud. It is decorated with size 8 white pony beads and loom woven quillwork. Its warps are hide thong and its wefts are vegetable or sinew thread. It is edged with black silk ribbon that is now partially gone. A green or tan colour appears to form a border, suggesting that the red stroud would not have originally been visible.
The design field has been divided into halves. One side has two quadripeds, which DJ says resemble caribou and wolf motifs, and a series of U-shapes. The other side has double crosses and large 'x's, which could also be interpreted as two chevrons meeting, or hourglasses. A single zig-zag line of beadwork runs horizontally along both edges.
It is possible that this belt is one of the quilled wampum belts mentioned in Oronhyatekha catalogue. It could also be a strap from a bandolier bag. This U-shaped motif, when found on Plains belts, represents horses.
The Johnson papers (1766 record) discuss horse theft and how to deal with property which might be useful for interpreting this item.
Also see John Tanner's narrative about horse raiding.
Stylistic features.
Provenance
Donated to the British Museum by Miss Dollman in 1935.
About This GRASAC Record
Unknown Anishinaabe artist, message belt. Currently in the British Museum, Am1935,0710.1. Item photographed and described as part of a GRASAC research trip December 2007; GRASAC item id 26660.
This record was created as part of a Great Lakes Research Alliance for the Study of Aboriginal Arts and Cultures (GRASAC) research trip to the Pitt Rivers Museum and British Museum, December 8-22 2007, funded by a grant from the International Opportunities fund of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC).
Researchers present: Heidi Bohaker (HB), John Borrows (JB), Lindsay Borrows (LB), Darlene Johnston (DJ), Stacey Loyer (SL), Janis Monture (JM), Bruce Morito (BM), Ruth Phillips (RP), Cory Willmott (CW).