Materials

Body: tanned smoked deer skin, brass cones, orange hair tassels
Strap: Buffalo Hair or black wool, finger-woven with white beads, porcupine quills, remnants of reddish-brown selvedge.
Quill colours are red, orange, white and black. Sewing is with sinew.

Techniques or Format

Strap has two panels of knetted quillwork sewn together at the top; beads woven into the strap with a vegetable fiber thread (Indian hemp).

At middle of sash, yarn strands are quill-wrapped in knetted technique; at ends, strands are quill-wrapped and strung with brass cones and orange hair tassels.

Motifs and Patterns

Scalloped-edged flap closure.
Decorated with porcupine quillwork in zigzag band (power lines) and simple line techniques and with hair tassels. Quill edging. Carrying strap has diamond pattern of beads interwoven.

Other Notes

LD: orange, white and black of knetted quillwork at top of strap in comparison to quill wrapped tassels. Fringe of hair in metal cones: hair is probably attached as a U-bunch and folded over, then was cut short 1/2 way so that half is longer with elegant effect.

Dimensions: 21.5 × 26.5 × 32 cm

Condition: Strap in delicate condition with loss of border, and damage to knetted portion and fringes. Pouch is structurally sound, with damage to fringes.

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

CMC catalogue record

Current Location: Canadian Museum of History, Ottawa, Canada

Catalogue, Accession or Reference Number: III-M-5

Collection at Current Location: Speyer Collection

Date of Acquisition by the Institution: 1973

Collection Narratives and Histories

Formerly in the Greatorex Collection, Whitechapel Museum, London. Later in the Hooper Collection.

GKS Reference Number: 27038