Alfred W. Jenkins Fund

Gift of the Ernest Erickson Foundation, Inc.

By exchange

Alfred W. Jenkins Fund

Florence B. and Carl L. Selden Fund

This (steel?) knife blade is known as a beaver tail stabber, Hudson's Bay dag or hand dag, with the later appellation appearing in trade accounts. It is a flat, triangular, spear shape joined to the handle with two copper rivets. The blade has no commercial markings. The handle is bone that is etched along the sides possibly with a tally of sorts made by the owner. The shape of the handle is nicely rounded at the grip to fit the palm comfortably and the butt acts as a guard to protect the hand from the blade. There is a third rivet at the end of the bone handle.The name 'scapling" is probably inaccurate . This hide sheath does not fit this dag knife and was probably made to fit a curved, commercial knife. The top edge of the sheath is decorated with a pattern of small quills. Threes crosses decorate a field of white quillwork on the panel. The cross at center is built around a light yellow square at center with dark brown arms. The two crosses on the right and left are pale blue squares at center with dark brown arms. On the edges of the panels, a small strip of red cloth, probably ribbon, is tied to the sheath's loop and two smaller loops with orange and white quillwork are attached. A border of tin cones stuffed with red dyed cloth is suspended from the panel. The streamers have remnants of wrappings with orange quillwork and decorated with additional cones. White quills along the seam and at the top of the knife sheath are applied as overcast stitches.

The object,known as a "copper," was cut into the shape of a shield from a flat sheet of copper alloy and hammered out to produce the animal face on the upper section and the ridge on the lower section. The upper section of this copper contains either the head of a bear or a beaver and has exposed metal as well as black and white painted areas. The delineation of the animal head on the upper area was achieved by scratching through painted and exposed metal areas. The lower section of the copper has two black painted panels with a vertical ridge. On the back of the object, there is some corrosion that is stable. The object is in good condition with minor surface scratches overall. Coppers were used as status symbols and were important economical commodities for their owners. The owner could break off part of one during a potlatch ceremony to demonstrate his or her largesse although this one shows no signs of having been used this way.

Museum Expedition 1905, Museum Collection Fund

This dress is composed of four sections of very white and pliable skin, probably employing at least two deer or caribou hides. Two large pieces of skin were sewn together to form the front and back of the dress and the upper edge of the skin is turned down as a long graceful flap to the waist. Two smaller pieces of skin are added to serve as shoulder straps. The entire dress, including the quillwork, is sewn together with thread. The seams that join the two major sections are fringed. Fringe near the shoulder is clipped very short so that it appears "pinked" and the fringe at the bottom of the dress is wrapped with orange and blue porcupine quills. The decoration of the shoulder straps is somewhat unusual as it differs from front to back. Scallops terminate the straps on the dress' front' while fringes decorate the shorter ends of the straps at the back. The straps are also decorated with a row of tiny black beads that edge the sides of these straps and surround the three scalloped lobes on each. Pairs of black beads in a double row decorate the section of the strap that intersects with the low neck line. Each scalloped portion of the straps is also ornamented, right and left, with bows made of hide strips wrapped at intervals with orange and light blue quills. Similar string-like ornaments are also attached at the proper right side of the front flap and the proper left side on the black flap. Quillwork strips across the body of the dress are in green, black, brown, white, reddish orange and light blue. Black seed beads and blue pony beads are applied as a scalloped border on an added piece of skin near the hem of the dress and tin cones are suspended in pairs from the apex of each of these beaded curves by thin hide strands wrapped at intervals with orange quills. See Jarvis report in Arts of Americas files.

This side fold dress consists of six pieces: the main body of the dress, the flounce, the shoulder flap, the top bodice, and two hide thongs as a second shoulder strap. The horizontal seam is low and the folded over portion is shorter and would barely cover the breast. The folded over flap is even shorter in the back. The hide is worked so that the flesh side of the skin lies against the wearer, with the fur side out. The flounce is laced with hide thong. The seam of the dress, the blue and white pony beads on the shoulder strap, and the hem tabs are all sewn. It is likely that the two bottom tabs at the left side of the dress are formed from a remnant of the foreleg of the animal or are a decorative form to resemble this pattern technique imitating the animal's legs. Ten quilled stripes are worked around the skirt of the dress, horizontally, in measured registers of blue (once blue-green but faded since original BMA acquisition) and brown quill, separated by shorter sections of white porcupine quill where red tufts, once the tassels, of yarn emerge. Small black lines separate each quilled section. Some vertical marks of what is probably ochre appear at the ends of the quilled bands. Tin cones and a few copper cones are sewn to the bottom of the flounce, more or less at knee length, and on the two bottom tabs, which are further elaborated with an edging of blue and white beads. Five pairs of copper cones are sewn up the side seam. If the shoulder strap is examined from above, blue and white beads can be seen ornamenting the seams. A single row or blue beads edges the sides while the front and back seams display eight bands of two rows of white beads alternating with two rows of blue pony beads. See Jarvis supplemental file in Arts of Americas office or Brooklyn Museum Library.