mookjigan crooked knife

mookjigan crooked knife

mookjigan crooked knife

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Introduction

This ancestor is a mookjigan, woodshaving knife, made from wood (maple), rawhide, and steel. The blade on this knife is made from a file and hafted to a handle with windings of cord wrapped in raw hide. The handle presents a finial of a carved horse head. According to David Penney, "Crooked knives were held palm up and used as a drawknife, the tool was used to trim lodge poles, shape canoe struts, or accomplish countless other tasks of woodworking. The curved tip was designed to hollow the interiors of bowls and spoons, and any other concave shape. The extension at the distal end of the knife functioned as a lever for the thumb." Red brown in colour, this ancestor may have been polished by the collector, as were many other items in the Chandler Pohrt collection. This ancestor is currently located at the Detroit Institute of Arts. 

Traditional Knowledge Label
TK Culturally Sensitive
TK Culturally Sensitive

This material has cultural and/or historical sensitivities

Nation of Maker: Odawa
Reasons for connecting this relative with particular nation(s)

This is listed as an Odawa knife by the Detroit Institute of Arts.

Place of Origin: Michigan, USA
Date Made or Date Range: 1860
Summary of Source(s) for this Relative

Information comes from David Penney's 1992 "Art of the American Indian Frontier: The Chandler Pohrt Collection" and Detroit Institute of Arts records.

Materials

wood (maple), rawhide, steel

Techniques or Format

Blade is forged from a file and hafted to handle with windings of cord covered with laced rawhide.

Motifs and Patterns

Handle has a finial carved as a horse head past a right angle elbow bend.

Additional Context

According to David Penney (1992), horses were very common animals to carve onto knives.

Dimensions: 10.5 × 1.625 × 3 in
Condition: Appears polished, but Chandler and Pohrt often modified items in their collections to restore so we cannot tell if the polishing was original or occurred later.
Current Location: Detroit Institute of Arts, MI, USA
Catalogue, Accession or Reference Number: 81.293
Link to Institution's Collections Database: https://dia.org/collection/crooked-knife-56245
Collection at Current Location: Chandler Pohrt Collection
Date of Acquisition by the Institution: 1981
Who the Institution Acquired the Relative or Heritage Item From: Richard A. Pohrt
Collection Narratives and Histories

purchased by Milford G. Chandler [1889-1981] at Beaver Island, Michigan, USA

purchased by Richard A. Pohrt [1911-2005] (Flint, Michigan, USA)

1981-present, purchased 1981 by the Detroit Institute of Arts (Detroit, Michigan, USA)

Source for Provenance information

As stated by the Detroit Institute of Arts Catalogue

Publication History

Art of the Great Lakes Indians. Exhibition catalogue, Flint Institute of Arts. Flint, MI, 1973, p. 76, no. 342.

Penny, D.W. and J. Stouffer. "Horse Imagery in Native American Art." Bulletin of the DIA 62, no. 1 (1986): 18-25, fig. 9.

Penney, David W. Art of the American Indian Frontier: The Chandler-Pohrt Collection. Seattle and London, 1992, cat. no. 165.

GKS Reference Number: 24701
Record Creation Context

This record was augmented by Natasha Fares on February 1st, 2024. The photographs were removed by Natasha Fares on February 1st, 2024 to respect an agreement between the Detroit Institute of Arts and the Michigan Anishinaabeg Communities of Practice group.

Approximate Place of Origin

45.64860838388, -85.547789793703

Source of Information about Places

DIA records indicate the item was purchased at Beaver Island, Michigan

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