Hide panel decorated with quillwork in two colours. Long rectangular piece of pliable hide is fully covered on one side by yellow-dyed quillwork, applied in a basket weave pattern. Red dyed quillwork is used to create four sets of three red lines, each extending horizontally across the panel, two emanating from a central line at middle, and two encroaching inward from the edges, each also backed with a red line.

Museum Purchase: Indian Collection Subscription Fund, Rasmussen Collection of Northwest Coast Indian Art.

Gift of Dr. John W. Hudson

The backboard for the cradle is missing, only the quilled ornaments remain. These consist of two large sections of smoked skin, which wrapped around the cradle and were decorated with orange, white, red, brown, light blue and yellow porcupine quills. The design may be called "otter tail” design as the fretwork moves from left to right as if the otter was doing this: jump-jump-slide-jump-jump. Another suggestion is that he "fret" design may be an abstract thunderbird. There are also two straps decorated with quill wrapped thongs, tin cones, and blue and white pony beads. The cradle model is exceptional in two respects. First it is a model and only 3 are known. (The other being in the NMAI and the Peabody Salem Essex). This suggests it was might have been made for sale as pieces that are missing perhaps were not made, or were lost after it was acquired. The cradle decorations are displayed on this mount condensed, as the piece would have been longer. The rectangular piece below might not be in correct location. B Hail, "Hau, Kola,” pg. 144, fig. 127, shows an early Dakota cradle with three of these rectangular forms dangling down from the bottom of the cradle board not from the wrappings.

The backs of these mittens and the thumbs are quilled with red, light blue, white, and purple porcupine quills in a floral design. The main composition is symmetrically arranged around an equal-armed, eight pointed element on a quadrate layout. The effect is of a flowering plant bursting into blossoms toward the fingertips so that the design is oriented towards the wearer. Design elements consist of the double curve cross, the trefoil, tear drop shaped and heart shaped motifs. A smaller curvilinear floral and leaf is embroidered on the thumb. Clustered on a single stem, similar design elements appear in blue, red, white, and purple. The cuffs are made of dark blue Stroud cloth decorated at the border with beads and ribbon. From the upper third of the cuff, proceeding toward the fingers, the ornaments are arranged: a scalloped design of white beads, each point terminating in a trilobal design; then a field of red ribbon; followed by a simple line of single white beads; a narrow band of gold or dark yellow ribbon; and finally a border of two lines of white beads. Blue and white bird quills decorate the seams. See supplementary file in Arts of Americas office.

The backs, thumbs, and cuffs of these mittens are decorated with porcupine quillwork in a delicate curvilinear and geometric design complex that was originally colored bright blue, red, white, and purple. The cuff is decorated with a scalloped quillwork line in red and green and a horizontal border in registers of red, blue and green with white and purple diamonds running through it. On the front of the mitten (the back side of the wearer's hand) is a stylized, four petaled, red flower with two secondary tri-lobed flowers, represented by blue outlines and three heart-shaped petals that emerge from the center of the red flower. Four curvilinear green and white lines emerge from the center of this red flower and they in turn terminate in flowers with three-pointed petals of red, blue, and purple. This is referred to as "turning swastika-like cross petals design." On the same side of the mitten, closest to where the thumb is on the reverse, is a quilled strip of red and purple diamonds, bordered in white and placed on a band-like field of blue and red. On the thumb itself is a pattern of three flowers combined, a red one at the center and a blue and white one on each side. This motif is placed above a four-lobed linear representation of a red flower, very similar to the large one on the other side of the mitten. There is evidence the mittens once had a fur strip edging. The mittens have a printed cloth lining, patterned with a brownish green leafy or paisley design on a natural ground. The pattern is not meant to show as it is faced into the inside of the mittens. See Jarvis supplemental file Arts of Americas office.

Constructed from a single piece of recycled buffalo hide, formerly painted, these side seam moccasins retain some of the design known as "box and border," in particular one of the terminal parts of the "box" pattern on the painted soles. The painting may have been scraped off the piece of the skin that forms the upper section. The decoration of the vamp is primarily bird quills. These "U" shaped sections of the moccasins are made up of concentric parallel lines. The bottom of the "U", nearer the toe, is composed of three yellow bands, alternating with orange. The upper part of the"U" is physically continuous with this, but is delineated by an abrupt change in color. Alternating rectangles of brown and blue make up the parallel, shorter bands in this section. Thin rows of yellow, orange, and black porcupine quill cover the side seam. Blue pony beads adorn the edge of the tongue and cuff. The laces are ornamented at the tips with tin cones stuffed with red deer hair. All the sewing is done with sinew. See Jarvis supplemental file in Arts of Americas' office.

Made of heavily smoked skin sewn with sinew, the vamps of these moccasins are decorated with a delicate, quillwork design. A central, vertically oriented, diamond shape in red is surrounded by four diagonal leaf-like elements in blue. The tri-lobed petals at top are red at center, blue on each side. The lower petals are red at center, white on each side. The seam is also outlined with blue and white bird quills. The mocassins are constructed without the usual characteristic center seam running from the toe to a vamp. A heel seam, center to the cuff and bottom, ends in two short tabs.There is no evidence that these mocassins were ever worn. See Jarvis supplimental file in Arts of Americas' office.