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: Northwest Coast, Haida?? Possibly collected by James G. Swan?? Painted blue motifs similar to "Emmons", 1888, Pl. LII, attributed to 'Johnnie Kit Elswa', a Haida Indian. Johnny Kit Elswa was Swan's assistant and helped him collect objects, as well as being an artist himself. - F. Pickering, 2009This may indeed have been drawn by Johnny Kit Elswa. Compare the style to examples of his work in The Dr. Franz R. and Mrs. Kathryn M. Stenzel collection at the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University, Series II. See in particular "The man in the moon. Haida mythology. Pen-and-ink drawing", https://collections.library.yale.edu/catalog/2003286 .An illustration showing the same design as on this object is visible in a Smithsonian Bureau of American Ethnology exhibit at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, St. Louis, Missouri, 1904, USNM Neg. No. 16462, Smithsonian Institution Archives, Record Unit 95, Box 62B, Folder 12, Image No. SIA_000095_B62B_F12_008 .