quilled birch bark box

quilled birch bark box

quilled birch bark box

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

purchased in Michilinack but probably from Little Traverse Bay Band of Odawa

Place of Origin: Michilimackinac, Fort Miami Region
Date Made or Date Range: 1840s to 1860s
Materials

birch bark, spruce root, porcupine quills, thread,

Techniques or Format

bark shaped into square container with rounded bulging sides set on a square pedestal base

Motifs and Patterns

floral, rosettes, stars

Other Notes

inscription on base -- in old script "For Arom / Mackanaw / of the Atawa [Odawa] / Indian Squaw"

Condition: poor, quills missing, stiching along sides of seams missing
Reasons for connecting this relative with particular times, materials, styles and uses

very similar to containers collected at Odawa community at Cross Village, Michigan in the 1840s by Austrian painter Martin Pitzer, now in Museum of Ethnography, Vienna

Current Location: National Museum of Natural History Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. USA
Catalogue, Accession or Reference Number: E005439
Date of Acquisition by the Institution: 1 January 1867
GKS Reference Number: 26722
Approximate Place of Origin

43.0703, -80.1184

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