FROM CARD: "SECTION INCLUDING ALL LOWER RIGHT QUADRANT AND PART OF LEFT QUADRANT MISSING; HOWEVER DESIGN CAN BE DETERMINED WITH REASONABLE ACCURACY FROM EXISTING PIECE. LINEAR BORDER SURROUNDING OUTSIDE OF ALTERNATE RED AND SIZE MARKING PARALLEL LINES; EXTENSION INTO HEAD AREA OF PARALLEL LINES OF SIMILAR CHARACTER. LARGE CENTER AREA DIVIDED INTO QUADRANTS BY INTERSECTING BANDS OF RED LINES AND SIZE MARKINGS. WITHIN EACH QUADRANT IS COMPLEX MOTIVE CONSISTING OF A CIRCLE ('SUN SYMBOL'?) ELABORATED WITH DOUBLE CURVES; (EACH QUADRANT IS BILATERALLY SYMMETRICAL ON LONG AXIS). THE ENTIRE PAINTED DESIGN COULD ACCURATELY BE REPRODUCED IN A COLOR PAINTING FROM THE EXISTING FRAGMENT. THE PAINTED DESIGN MORE CLOSELY APPROXIMATES NASKAPI STYLE THAN PLAINS INDIAN PAINTING. PROBABLY FROM THE NORTHERN WOODLANDS - GREAT LAKES AREA - JOHN C. EWERS, JAN. 16, 1948." Artifact is illus. Fig. 2, p. 61 in "Ceremonial Robes of the Montagnais-Naskapi" by Alika Podolinsky Webber, American Indian Art Magazine, Vol. 9, No. 1, Winter 1983, and identified there as "Ceremonial robe fragment. Naskapi [Innu] ... Native tanned unsmoked caribou skin. 100.5 cm long, 63 cm wide. The large center area is divided into quadrants by intersecting bands of red lines and size markings. Within each quadrant is a complex motif consisting of a circle elaborated with double curves; and the circle itself is divided into four equal sections forming a cross." Possible meanings of the design are also discussed on pp. 67-68 in the same article.

From card: "In two pieces (once one specimen); one being upper portion with sleeves; other lower portion; the two pieces fit together perfectly, to make a coat of generalized Naskapi style made of seven pieces of skin sewn together (1 each arm; 1 center back; 1 left side; 1 rt. side; (2 small pieces inset to back). Predominantly decoration is simple painted design in bands of red and size marking. All the latter is linear; red mainly straight lines, some wavy and some solid triangles, at top; also red dots in neck border. Red flannel or strouding edging top of shoulder seams, and arm-body seams. There is no collar, and neck form like that of a poncho Plains Indian shirt. [Culture listed as Algonkian on catalogue card.] Catlin did not visit the Naskapi, if this was collected by him in the field it was obtained most likely in the Great Lakes area. Possibly Ojibwa or Cree - John C. Ewers, Jan. 15, 1948." Identified by Morgan Baillargeon, Canadian Museum of Civilization, 2009, as possibly Montagnais?

PROBABLY MADE OF FINELY TWISTED TWO-PLY CATTAIL (TYPHA LATIFOLIA) LEAF CORD - *SEE* A TIME OF GATHERING BY ROBIN K. WRIGHT, 1991, P. 34, 40, 48.A similar Chinook skirt, from Lewis and Clark, is in collections of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology at Harvard University, # PM 99-12-10/52990. The Peabody Museum website notes that Lewis and Clark "... described at length the unique twined cordage skirts that women in the lower Columbia River area made from cedar bark or cattail leaves, which were valuable commodities in local trade networks." Peabody Museum curator Castle McLaughlin has noted that the Catlin cordage skirts E73291, E73306 and E386547 have red paint applied to them, but this is not typical for these types of skirts. The red paint may have been applied by George Catlin?During the cataloguing of quillwork E386582B in 1948, a tag was found with it that stated "From a Lewis and Clark Chinook Skirt in Catlin Coll". Curator John C. Ewers determined that the tag did not actually belong with E386582B. It is possible that the tag might instead have been associated with Chinook skirts E73291, E73306 or E386547. This tag has not currently been located. Nor can the source of the possible ID of a Chinook skirt in the Catlin collection to Lewis and Clark be determined.

From card: "Wooden cradle; made of single piece of wood, boat shaped, with carved handle at one end; fibre strings at sides to hold child in; remnants of fibre padding inside. Same red and black paint on surface. Apparently this is the cradle illustrated in Mason's Cradles of the American Aborigines USNM Report 1887, Fig. 7, and there erroneously called No. 2574B."A similar cradle, also from George Catlin, is in the collections of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology at Harvard University, # PM 88-51-10/50695.

Attributed on card by curator John C. Ewers as "probably Chinook or Salish." From card: "Waist band of bucksin, with buckskin tie strings; long cut fringe to band; outside of band decorated with vertical floral [fruit?] motives in 1 horizontal row (black and red paint). To inner border of waistband a second fringe of braided mtn. goat hair (?) is attached by skin thongs. Note: Dr. Erna Gunther, Washington State Museum, on visit to USNM, Oct. 13, 1948, stated this definitely of mtn. goat hair, but that she had not seen any other skirts like it from the northwest. She was not famliar with the painted motives. She believed it was probably from an interior tribe of Washington or B.C."

PROBABLY MADE OF FINELY TWISTED TWO-PLY CATTAIL (TYPHA LATIFOLIA) LEAF CORD - *SEE* A TIME OF GATHERING BY ROBIN K. WRIGHT, 1991, P. 34, 40, 48.A similar Chinook skirt, from Lewis and Clark, is in collections of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology at Harvard University, # PM 99-12-10/52990. The Peabody Museum website notes that Lewis and Clark "... described at length the unique twined cordage skirts that women in the lower Columbia River area made from cedar bark or cattail leaves, which were valuable commodities in local trade networks." Peabody Museum curator Castle McLaughlin has noted that the Catlin cordage skirts E73291, E73306 and E386547 have red paint applied to them, but this is not typical for these types of skirts. The red paint may have been applied by George Catlin?During the cataloguing of quillwork E386582B in 1948, a tag was found with it that stated "From a Lewis and Clark Chinook Skirt in Catlin Coll". Curator John C. Ewers determined that the tag did not actually belong with E386582B. It is possible that the tag might instead have been associated with Chinook skirts E73291, E73306 or E386547. This tag has not currently been located. Nor can the source of the possible ID of a Chinook skirt in the Catlin collection to Lewis and Clark be determined.

A: Two shirts of buckskin hide, quite similar to each other. Decorated with blue and white sequins, along with various anthropomorphic figures and heads on one shirt. B: buckskin leggings 'A1: Shirt with animal (?deer) hooves attached to the fringes of the arms. There are traces of red dye on the shirt. The sleeves have 2 small bands with white and blue beads. There are fringes on the arm openings, the bottom edge and along the sides. There are small holes at the back. A2: Shirt with fringes at the arms and the sides. The shirt is painted in black with anthropomorphic designs at the front and the back. There are some red, white blue beads at the back. The front has a disk motif with white and blue beads. The sleeves have painted white and black stripes painted. There are also ribbons hanging from the shirt. B: The leggings are undecorated. There are short fringes at the sides, top and bottom of the leggings. F. Veys, 14/9/2005'Martin Schultz suggested that the pendents on A1 are puffin beaks.