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Strap, burden
Strap, burden
Strap, burden
This relative, a bikan (burden strap), is long and narrow. Using the false embroidery technique, this relative is decorated with moosehair embroidery, in which the moosehair is wrapped around the weft threads of the twined strap to form geometric patterns. The end of each strap is braided, branching off into two individual straps. The horizontal edges are fringed with white beads. Collected by British Army officer Jasper Grant between 1800-1809, the origins of the bikan are not certain; however, it has probable connections to the Hodenosaunee/Haudenosaunee Confederacy or Huron-Wendat.
This relative currently resides in the National Museum of Ireland.
Hodenosaunee or Huron-Wendat
This information was informed by the following resource: Phillips, Ruth. Patterns of Power: Kleinburg, On.: McMichael Canadian Collection, 1984.
This information was informed by the following resource: Phillips, Ruth. Patterns of Power: Kleinburg, On.: McMichael Canadian Collection, 1984.
Read More About This Relative
Indian hemp (apocynum); glass beads; moosehair, yellow, blue, green-blue, light and deep orange, natural white.
The moosehair was wrapped around the weft threads of the twined strap- false embroidery technique.
Great Lakes geometric designs; the design of one of the straps is varied by doubling the scale of the design units of the other.
The burden straps were worn so that the wider decorated central section was visible across the forehead.
Nikolaus Stolle: argues that the decorative material is porcupine quills rather than moosehair.
Jasper Grant served as commandant of Fort George in the Niagara Peninsula and of Fort Malden at Amherstburg opposite Detroit from 1800-1809.
Provenance
Jasper Grant (1762-1812), Anglo-Irish officer who spent 9 years in Canada between 1800-1809. Served as commandant of Fort George in the Niagara Peninsula and of Fort Malden at Amherstburg opposite Detroit. It is likely that his wife, Isabella Grant, played a significant role in the collection of items given her close relationship to Madeline Askin Richardson, the daughter of a prominent fur trader and merchant with extensive ties to the surrounding Indigenous communities.
GRASAC researcher notes from research trip to the National Museum of Ireland on July 22, 2010.
In 1984-1985 the Jasper Grant Collection was featured in a special travelling exhibition for the Ontario bicentennial, which was organized by the McMichael Canadian Collection and entitled "Patterns of Power."
Phillips, Ruth. Patterns of Power. Kleinburg, On.: McMichael Canadian Collection, 1984.
Philips, Ruth B. (1986-87). “Jasper Grant and Edward Walsh: the Gentleman-Soldier as Early Collector of Great Lakes Indian Art.” Journal of Canadian Studies 21(4): 56-71.
About This GRASAC Record
Maker, Name unrecorded. Burden strap. GRASAC ID: 27127. National Museum of Ireland Collection, 1902.334.
This record was augmented by Dana Murray on November 26, 2024. It was informed by notes and records collected during a GRASAC research trip to the National Museum of Ireland on July 22, 2010. Participants included Alan Corbiere, Ruth Phillips, Crystal Migwans, and Nicholas Stolle, who were assisted by Padraig Clancy and Emma Crosby.
42.107, -83.1132
This information was informed by the following resource: Phillips, Ruth. Patterns of Power. Kleinburg, On.: Patterns of Power, 1984. Fort Malden is identified on the map as a possible origin for this relative, but this reflects only one place where the relative may have lived. It is not a known place of origin; it is only one location associated with where the collector, Jasper Grant, served in the British Army.