Materials

Black-dyed smoked deerskin; sinew; red, black, orange, white dyed porcupine quills; vegetable dyes; red-dyed animal hair probably deer; metal cones, thongs. (J.H.)

Techniques or Format

Two oblong panels of black deerskin, rounded and open at the top and cut into two leg-like tabs at the base, sewn together at the edges with one-quill edging stitch. A "belt-line" (as Christian Feest has called it) of zigzag quillwork, simple stitch around border and underneath belt line. Bird motifs are stitched in quills using simple line stitch as are the outline borders of quillwork sewn horizontally above the tabs. Tassels are constructed with thongs, cones of wrapped metal strips, and red-dyed animal hair. Wavy line around border is white on front and red and white on back.(J.H., R.P.)

Motifs and Patterns

Front panel: a large crested bird with long tail and legs in naturalistic style in profile facing right resembling a partridge, outlined in three rows of simple stitch, white. The "belt line" under the bird is of three rows of red, white, orange, black porcupine quills in zigzag work and arranged in slanted colour groups. Under the belt line are four rows of simple stitch in wavy line, alternating white, red, white, with yellow at bottom. Evidence of sixteen tassels of red animal hair, reduced to thirteen. Back panel: smaller bird in profile, facing right, resembling a grouse. The body is outlined with rows of outline quillwork (top of body has three purple, one red) around the bottom of body, (two rows of purple, one red that also forms heartline). Tail, feet and bent neck are of white simple stitch. Belt line is red, orange, black and white, arranged in pyramidal groups. Underneath belt line are three wavy rows of simple stitch, two white and one yellow. (J.H.)

Additional Context

1. birds could be grouse dodems as in Bohaker, 2010 or

2. possibly related to Ghost Lodge funeray rituals recorded on Midewiwin scrolls as in Dewdney 1975:106(J.H.)

Original and Subsequent Uses

Possibly ceremonial, similar bird images are found on Ghost Dance Mide scrolls published by Selwyn Dewdney suggesting a possible ritual context. The partridge and grouse are also Anishinaabe clan dodems, suggesting another possible use.(J.H.)

Dimensions: 0 × 12 × 47 cm

Condition: Quill appliqué on reverse side is damaged, of the sixteen original tassels, seven are damaged and two are missing. No other sign of wear. The colour of the hide, now greenish, may have faded from black or dark brown. (J.H.)

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

Similarity to bags collected by Jasper Grant between 1800-1809 in the National Museum of Ireland and by Return Jonathan Meigs in the Thaw Collection, Fennimore Art Museum, Cooperstown datable to the 1790s or early 1800s. (J.H., R.P.)

Current Location: Canadian Museum of History, Ottawa, Canada

Catalogue, Accession or Reference Number: III-G-822

Collection at Current Location: Speyer Collection

Date of Acquisition by the Institution: 1973

Date Relative was First Removed or Collected from its Community Context: unknown

Collection Narratives and Histories

Earliest recorded collector attributed to Rev. Dan Greatorex, Vicar of St. Paul’s Church in the London Docks between 1862 and 1867. It became part of the now defunct Whitechapel Museum in London. Next, in James Thomas Hooper collection and his Totems Museum in Arundel, Sussex, England. Then acquired by the Speyer Collection before 1968 and in 1973 was included in the purchase by CMC of 259 artifacts in the Speyer Collection. (J.H.)

Exhibition History

Benndorf & Speyer: Indianer Nordamerikas, 1968; CMC: “Bo’jou Neejee!”1976; Cobourg Art Gallery; Coburg Art Gallery, 1979, Patterns of Power, McMichael Canadian Collection, 1984. (J.H.)

Publication History

Benndorf & Speyer, Indianer Nordamerikas,1968; CMC, “Bo’jou Neejee!”1976; S.Phelps, Art and Artefacts of the Pacific, Africa and Americas: the James Hooper Collection 1976; Phillips, Patterns of Power, 1984; C. Feest, “Tab Pouches of Northeastern North America”, 1997. (J.H.)

Sources to Learn More

Bohaker, Heidi. “Reading Anishinaabe Identities: Meaning and Metaphor in Nindoodem Pictographs” in Ethnohistory 57:1 (Winter 2010).
Brasser, Ted J. “Bo’jou, Neejee!” Profiles of Canadian Indian Art. Ottawa: National Museum of Man, 1976.
Dewdney, Selwyn. Sacred Scrolls of the Southern Ojibway. Ann Arbor: UMI, 1994.
Feest, Christian F. “Tab Pouches of Northeastern North America”, in Indian Art Magazine, Autumn, 1997.
Phillips, Ruth B. Patterns of Power : The Jasper Grant Collection and Great Lakes Indian art of the Early Nineteenth Century. Kleinburg, ON: McMichael Canadian Collection, 1984.
Sturtevant, William C. “Documenting the Speyer Collection”,in A Memorial Tribute to Norman Feder, C. Feest ed. European Review of Native Studies, 2001. (J.H.)

GKS Reference Number: 27057

Record Creation Notes/Observations

Created by Jane Horner as part of a class research project. ARTH 5210, Master's program in Art History, Carleton University, autumn 2010. Supported by Judy Hall, Curator of Great Lakes Ethnology, Canadian Museum of Civilization. Edited by Ruth Phillips