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beaded vest of Chief Wa-be-che-chake
beaded vest of Chief Wa-be-che-chake
beaded vest of Chief Wa-be-che-chake
Anishinaabe vest made of red stroud, cotton lining, wool tape, and size 10 seed beads. Beadwork is of stylized floral motifs and includes eight-pointed star- and pinwheel-shaped flowers. Attributed to Chief Wa-be-che-chake (Wabejijig) of Batchewana, made for him by his wife. Dr. Oronhyatekha Ethnology collection.
GRASAC generated description
Read More About This Relative
Red stroud, red cotton lining, gold wool tape trim, size 10 seed beads translucent dark green, dusty rose, and gold; opaque periwinkle blue, dusty rose, white, turquoise, navy blue; greasy yellow, medium green; six spherical brass coloured metal buttons with raised motif and faceted cut to look jewel like
Vest is cut of three pieces, back and two sides; fully lined with the red cotton. The beadwork does not go all the way through; no paper used to back the individual motifs, six hand sewn button holes, no machine sewing, tape tab at the neck -- for hanging?
star shaped flowers, leaves, fronts other stylized floral elements and 'buds'. Some of the flowers on the back have a pinwheel shape
CW: the beadwork is exceptionally well done. When Cory and Trudy did a workshop with Anishinaabe bead workers in 1999 and looked at this vest, the bead workers thought that birch bark templates had been used, possibly with flour and water to transfer the pattern. They were very taken with the way the maker chose to fill in the centres of the star shaped flowers to make them resemble spider webs
AC: was told that the wife of Chief Wa-be-che-chake made the vest while he was fighting in the war of 1812, but he never got to wear it because he was killed early in the war, either at Michilimackinaw or Detroit. The son of this man,Nabanegojing, was declared a chief when still a teen-ager because of his father's death.
RP The style of the beadwork looks more recent than the 1812 period.
CW: The colours of the beads and the floral motifs introduced around 1835-40
The flour lines used to make the pattern are visible in the centre back rose motif
Based on the style of the beadwork and the colours of the beads. The cloth and the buttons could easily be from 1812
Provenance
F. Barlow Cumberland, Catalogue and Notes of the Oronhyatekha Historical Collection (Toronto: Independent Order of Foresters, 1904), p 22.
Item 63. "Beaded Vest of Chief Wa-be-che-chake of 1812. Chief's Vest for ceremonial occasions, worked in beads by the wife of Warrior Chief Wa-be-che-chake, of 1812. The beads are some of the earlier kind brought into Canada by the English and French for traders, and the red cloth material was given to her by one of the officers of the time."
About This GRASAC Record
Unknown artist, beaded vest of Chief Wa-be-che-chake. Currently in the Royal Ontario Museum, 911.3.123. Item photographed and described as part of a GRASAC research trip December 2008; GRASAC item id 1036.
GRASAC team research trip to the Royal Ontario Museum, Dec 15-19 2008, funded by SSHRC Aboriginal Research Grant. Participants: Heidi Bohaker, Alan Corbiere, Lewis Debassige, Anne De Stecher, Darlene Johnston, Stacey Loyer, Trudy Nicks, Ruth Phillips
Dec 17 ethnology team: Alan Corbiere, Stacey Loyer, Ruth Phillips, Cory Willmott