#col-con

[ojibwe-art-timeline]

Unknown. “Ojibwe Beaded Velvet Cradleboard Bands.” Pair of black velvet beaded Ojibwe bands used as decoration for cradleboards, circa 1900. Collected by Alfred “Gafe” Peterson, who worked and owned businesses in the Cass Lake, Minnesota region from the 1920s to 1974. St. Paul, Minnesota: Minnesota Historical Society Collections, n.d. Minnesota Historical Society Collections. Minnesota.

This pair of cradle board bands serve to decorate a child’s cradleboard, reflect a similar cultural and botanical motif present in Ojibwe art present and past. As cradleboards have both a practical and artistic character as they are used to carefully cradle the child with wooden boards, moss or plant fibres as padding, and soft coverings like these velvet covers for warmth. These constructions allowed and allow parents to continue daily tasks while ensuring that they would not need to worry about the child. Infants placed in such cradleboards get introduced to community life and support interpersonal connections with the child. Moreover, the manufacturing process of cradleboards are often made by relatives, reinforcing community relationships and familial ties. Additionally, beadwork such as this which decorates cradleboards can signify family identity, cultural ties, or spiritual protection.

[ojibwe-art-timeline]

Unknown. “Catlinite Napkin-Ring.” Engraved catlinite napkin ring. New York, New York, United States of America. Unknown date but acquired in 1895. Smithsonian Anthropology department.

Accessed by the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History in 1895, an unknown Ojibwe artist created this napkin ring. Decorated with engraved scalloped on both ends of the ring before leaving to a section of engraved starbursts and arrows on the top section and strawberries and starburst in the lower third. The middle-extruded section of the napkin ring has geometric edges with a repeating four petaled flowers and dotted covered X in a ABAB pattern horizontally. These patterns are not out of the ordinary for the Ojibwe people as floral and natural patterns are common in their art. Furthermore, the addition of more traditional visual indicators of Ojibwe onto a napkin ring, an item that is rather non-traditional for the community, could suggest that this item of art was an attempt of commercializing their art to cater towards the newer European neighbours.

[ojibwe-art-timeline]

Unknown. “Sash Net.” Sash, net made of cord (wool), iron, bison hair and deer hair dyed red, quills (porcupine). Net construction, warps are quill wrapped with eleven tassels on both sides. United Kingdom: British Museum, 1750-1850. British Musuem. United Kingdom.

Nets hold a great importance to the Ojibwe and nearby native communities such as the Cree. The British Museum, which has held this artifact and artwork since 1865, classifies this net as a sash similar to finger woven belts and garters collected around the Hudson Bay. In fact, this net has even been a part of an exhibition held at the museum where it was placed under the category of personal decoration and grouped with tattoos, appliqué quillwork, beadwork and embroidery and belts. Although, little to no detail is given about this specific net other than it being a “sash of yarn strands bound together in open netted technique with quills (length 100 cm)”.

George Fulford proposes that such nets, ahnapiy (nets) or ahaapiish (little nets) could have been the origine of a reinvented interpretation of the process leading to the creation of the asabikeshiiwas-abiig (spider nets). Although the British Museum has catalogued this net as a sash, there is little to no evidence of the Ojibwe having or using similar sashes to this and could rather be a net charm. After an ethnographic review of native artifacts in North American and European museums by Cath Oberholtzer, traditional net charms were created through knotted thread into creating a small fishnet to prevent a child’ spirit from wandering from their physical self. In such the idea of conjoining between the physical body and spiritual body is linked to the symbolic image of the spider. Although these charms are usually taking the form of a circular charm, the method of binding the net could reveal a similar relationship to the animal.

[ojibwe-art-timeline]

Unknown. Pipe bowl with human and feline effigies. Smithsonian, 1750-1790. National Museum of the American Indian. Mississauga.

This pipe depicting both a feline and human form holds a similar form to that of others which remain. The presentation pipe largely consists of two sections, the pipe bowl and the stem. In this case, the pipe bowl is within the head of the human figure as it is inset with a metal and is similar enough in shape to the Janus head common across other native pipes. Secondly, in the pipe presented the pipe stem is made with both wood and animal bone. The stem made of bone could therefore enter the first and be used as a mouthpiece. The paint mentioned by the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian would have likely faded over time but could have from a similar mixture of ochre used in the Ojibwe’s rock paintings.

Since there was a sacred relationship between the Ojibwe and tobacco, such pipes held an import and role within ceremonial practices. During colonization, these pipes gained more use and had even been within gifted items between tribes as a sign of respect and even friendship. Additionally, after negotiation sessions, Ojibwe elders and the European settlers would complete their agreements with a pipe ceremony as to show that the agreement came from a sincere place, originating from the heart. This tradition continues to this day through more symbolic understandings of each part of the pipe and the tobacco, as to represent kindness, faith, honesty, and sharing.