Alfred W. Jenkins Fund

Frank Sherman Benson Fund and the Henry L. Batterman Fund

Alfred W. Jenkins Fund

By exchange

By exchange

An argillite carving of a bird on its back surmounted by three seated figures. It is stable and in good condition. The toes on the rear sitting figure seem to be intentionally undefined. The long hair on the front figure suggests that he is a Shaman. The 'pin dots' in the centers of the eyes on the boat show the carver used a compass to create the circular forms and if so this is unusual. The piece shows great action and movement and it thought to be one of the great argillite pieces by most scholars.

THE JARVIS COLLECTION
The articles in this case and the adjacent clothing case [see 50.67.6] are some of the earliest and finest Eastern Plains pieces in existence. They were collected by Dr. Nathan Sturges Jarvis, a military surgeon stationed at Fort Snelling, Minnesota, between 1833 and 1836. Most items were made by the Eastern and Middle Dakota (Sioux) or by the peoples of the Red River region, including the Red River Métis, Anishinabe, Plains Cree, and Salteaux. Some of the objects were purchased by Jarvis, and others may have been given to him in exchange for his medical services.

By the early nineteenth century, the growing numbers of white settlers and military personnel—following decades of fur trading—had depleted much of the game on which the Dakota and Red River peoples depended. Indigenous ingenuity in combining trade materials such as cloth, metal, and glass beads with traditional hides, pipestone, and porcupine and bird quills is evident in these objects.

A seated female figure with her hands on her waist and a large head, open at the top. There are openings for her eyes and mouth and holes in her ears for ornaments. Her legs short and bulbous, and her breasts are flat. Small holes under arms and inside legs and navel are for the escape of air during firing. The figure is painted with a red, black, and white slip and a pattern of wavy black lines appears on the torso; a black lozenge pattern decorates the chin and neck area. Condition: the right leg has been repaired, as well as the head which was broken off and replaced. One of a pair of ancestral figures (mate is 69.132.2). Pairs of figures, such as these Zacatecas examples, have been found as sets, in shaft-and-chamber tombs, along with other offerings to the dead.

Quartzite stone carved in shaped of amphibian. Date and culture attribution is to be confirmed. Jemez consultants reported that when a frog speaks you know the rain will come.

The figure is on the far right (in back row). This figure has an open mouth with closed eyes. Both of his arms are held across his stomach. His head is plain. See also 03.325.4527- 34. These figures were all found together inside a painted pot. They were purchased from the German trader, Cronmeyer.