Lisette Harmon and Her Hunting Bag: A Jigsaw Puzzle in Aboriginal Material Culture and Identity

ROLAND BOHR University of

In the fall of 2008, my colleague Anne Lindsay and I conducted research into Aboriginal people’s use of natural dyes in coloring porcupine quills. Based on dye recipes recorded by fur traders in the eighteenth and nine- teenth centuries, we dyed porcupine quills in several different colors to see whether these recipes would yield results similar to dyed quills found in original pieces of Aboriginal quillwork from that time period. One of the more detailed sources of information on Aboriginal use of natural dye- stuffs was the journal of North West Company fur trader and explorer Daniel Williams Harmon, who recorded information on the use of natural dyes in quillwork that likely came from his wife Lisette Duval/Laval, who was of Aboriginal descent and who strongly identi¿ed with a cultural background.1 After the completion of our dye experiments, I worked the quills into ¿nished pieces to see how they would stand up to actual use and how this would affect their colors. Several colleagues pointed out that the Bennington Museum in Ben- nington, Vermont holds an early nineteenth-century quill-embroidered hunt- ing bag, attributed to Lisette Duval. The bag is beautifully worked in quills that, according to the bag’s provenance, were dyed by the maker. It is unusual to be able to connect an artifact like this with particular details about its possible construction, but Daniel Harmon’s own journal includes infor- mation about dyeing that was most probably provided by his wife Lisette Duval/Laval Harmon. Surviving Aboriginal artifacts that can be attributed

1. Lisette’s family name is variously rendered as Duval, or Laval. Daniel Harmon stated that Lisette’s father was a “Canadian.” He may have been a Métis-employee of the North West Company. Harmon described her mother as a Snare Indian from “about the Rocky Mountains.” Harmon also indicated that Lisette spoke Cree.

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Figure 1. Fork handle wrapped with plaited quillwork. Photo by Roland Bohr.

to speci¿c individuals are rare and provide an important source of infor- mation on Aboriginal and fur trade history from an individual’s perspec- tive. Furthermore, museum records indicate that this bag may have been manufactured around 1810, which would make it one of the earliest and best-documented bags of this kind, made by a person of mixed Aboriginal and European descent.2 When we ¿rst saw the pictures our colleagues had taken of this bag, we noticed that the quill colors, at least in the image, were quite similar to those that we had achieved in our dye experiments. Intrigued by this, I decided to examine more closely questions on provenance and use of this bag, based on fur trade and related records, and to compare it to similar artifacts, most often found in Woodland and/or Subarctic cultures, such as the central Cree, Ojibwa, and Chipweyan. The Bennington bag is made from Native-tanned leather and is roughly rectangular, with the four corners rounded off. The front of the bag is deco- rated with two wide horizontal panels of very ¿ne and intricately worked loom-woven quillwork in geometric designs in orange-red and blue against a white or ivory background. Quill-wrapped fringes, ending in metal cones

2. Sherry Farrell-Racette, e-mail from June 23, 2009: “It’s a bit hard to tell from the photograph. The colors look quite faded. I am thinking mostly Cree/Métis inÀuences— the motifs are looking pretty familiar. As far as I know Harmon was not mixed and not Catholic. . . . However, as women tend to work in mentoring groups, she no doubt was part of a woman’s circle unless her father was an itinerant worker. I’m hoping to include it in my manuscript as it would be (I think) the oldest documented work by a Métis woman. . . .”

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Figure 2. Quilled bag attributed to Lisette Duval/Harmon.

with textile or hair tassels dyed a deep burgundy red, extend from the bottom of each panel. The top section of the bag, above the ¿rst woven quillwork panel has Àat quillwork, directly sewn onto the leather of the bag in geometric and stylized Àoral patterns. A narrow band of light blue or green folded quillwork, directly sewn to the leather runs along the outer edge of the bag. The bag is attached to a wide carrying strap at the upper back. This strap or bandolier is embroidered with colorful quillwork in curvilinear patterns of “heart” and “apple” shapes, small rosettes, and double-curve motives. Along the outer margins of the strap run bands of light-colored quillwork, applied in a technique known as “rick-rack.”3 Both the strap’s and the bag’s edges are ¿nished with a narrow band of plaited quillwork.4 Embroidery similar to that on the Bennington bag appeared on several other bags dating from as early as the 1760s to possibly the 1860s. These bags are either rectangular or are shaped like an oversized mitten with a

3. Hensler (1989:30–31). 4. Bennington Museum, Bennington, Vermont, A-4501.

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straight top and a rounded or oval bottom. The earliest bag of this type that I could ¿nd was supposedly collected by George Holt between 1768 and 1771, while in the employ of the Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC). George Holt served with the HBC from 1768 until at least 1782, ¿rst as a sailor and then eventually he was promoted to sloop master.5 In a letter to Splendid Heritage, Aboriginal art historian Ted Brasser described this bag as a miniature of the shot pouches worn by Cree hunters.6

Figure 3. Quilled bag collected by HBC mariner George Holt, 1768-1771.7

5. Provincial Archives of Manitoba, Hudson’s Bay Company Archives, biographical sheets, http://www.gov.mb.ca/chc/archives/hbca/biographical/h/holt_george.pdf (accessed Dec. 8, 2009). 6. http://www.splendidheritage.com/Notes/NC0047.pdf (accesssed Dec. 8, 2009). 7. Splendid Heritage, Warnock Collection, Item Number: WC8608007. Category: Bag–Pouch. Dimensions: Height 5.5 inches 14 cm. Collected by George Holt between 1768 and 1771 while employed by the Hudson Bay Company. Presented to Dr. Andrew Gifford in 1775, then donated to a Baptist Academy in Bristol, England. Image taken from: http://www.splendidheritage.com/nindex.html. (accessed December 2009).

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This bag has two relatively narrow bands of woven quillwork with quill-wrapped fringe ending in red-dyed hair or textile ¿ber tassels at the bottom of each quill panel. It is decorated with woven quillwork on both sides, front and back. The British Museum holds several similar bags made from Native-tanned hide or fur. Most of these bags have similar panels of woven quillwork in geometric designs. In most cases, there is little to no provenance information, but one of these bags can be documented as having come to the British Museum from the estate of the banker and ethnographer, Henry Christie (1810–1865). Because of the lack of provenance information and information on dates of collection, it is dif¿cult to establish a chronological typology for these bags. However, if a development from simpler to more complex pat- terns can be assumed (which may not necessarily be correct), it would

Figure 4. Shot pouch with wide panel of woven quillwork.8

8. Pouch, British Museum, Registration Number: Am1986, 18.17. Image from: http://www.britishmuseum.org/default.aspx. Shot pouch, of unsmoked moosekin [?]. Dimensions: Height: 23 centimeters; Width: 14.5 centimeters. Purchased from Royal Institution of Cornwall.

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Figure 5. Comparison of pouches with wide panels of woven quillwork. A) British Museum.9 b) Bennington Museum. c) McCord Museum.10

appear as if the more complex designs on the Bennington bag originated in simpler forms found on other bags, along with a shift from narrow loom- woven quillwork bands to the wider type found on the Bennington bag. The British Museum holds at least two pouches with a single but very wide band of woven quillwork. Both have little to no provenance information. Rectangular bags with a broad carrying strap or bandolier have been documented from later periods. In the mid-1980s, Andrew Hunter Whit- eford examined heavily-beaded bandolier bags from the Great Lakes area,

9. Buckskin pouch with quillwork, British Museum, Registration Number: Am1970, 09.1. Dimensions: Height: 26 centimeters; Width: 16.5 centimeters. Curator’s comments: Formerly the property of the donor’s great uncle who was Col. Gordon in China and who travelled extensively. Donated by Miss C. R. Lyster, who donated a collection of Native American items to the Museum in 1970. Image from: http://www.britishmuseum. org/research/search_the_collection_database/search_object_details.aspx. 10. Pouch, Anonymous, ninteeenth century. Elk hide, cotton cloth, porcupine quills, hair, vegetable ¿bre, sinew, cotton thread, pigment, 14.2 î 25.5 cm. Gift of The Natural History Society of Montreal. M5053. Image from: http://www.mccord-museum.qc.ca/en/ collection/artifacts/M5053/.

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mostly dating to the second half of the nineteenth century. More recently, Cath Oberholtzer provided a concise survey of different types of James Bay Cree bags, including a type that could be related to the Bennington bag.11 The German naturalist Prince Maximilian zu Wied collected at least two bandolier bags during his travels in the Upper region in 1833/34. One of them shows “heart”-motifs, similar to those on the Ben- nington bag.12 Later in the nineteenth century, such bandolier bags, then often embroidered with glass beads in addition to, or instead of quillwork, became popular among Ojibwa people of the Great Lakes area and other Algonquian and Siouan-speaking people of the American Midwest.

Figure 6. Métis coats at the Canadian Museum of civilization.13

11. Whiteford 1986; Oberholtzer 2004. 12. Schulze-Thulin (1987:72), Inv. Nr. 36061, Wied Collection, Ojibwa, ca. 1830, length 70 cm incl. Strap, visible length of strap, ca 90 cm; page 70, Inv.-Nr. 19121, Krongut Collection, Cree, early nineteenth century, overall length 68 cm; page 70, Inv.-Nr. 36145, Wied Collection Winnebago, ca. 1830, overall length 73 cm. 13. http://collections.civilization.ca/public/objects/common/webmedia.php?irn=247687 [left and center (http://collections.civilization.ca/public/objects/common/webmedia. php?irn=247684), from the same coat] and http://collections.civilization.ca/public/ objects/common/webmedia.php?irn=143209 (right).

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Comparing the manufacturing techniques, materials, and embroidery styles of the bag at the Bennington museum with similar artifacts col- lected from other Aboriginal and Métis peoples during the ¿rst half of the nineteenth century may offer another avenue for situating Lisette Duval’s Aboriginal background and its inÀuences more closely. A point to start with is the woven quillwork panels. At least two Métis coats, one of them acquired by the Earl of Caledon of Tyrone, Ireland, in 1841 and now at the Canadian Museum of Civiliza- tion, show quillwork with design elements quite similar to the quillwork on the Bennington bag.14 These coats have bands of woven quillwork running across the shoulders from front to back, in the style of a European military coat. The bands of woven quillwork on the coats include a design element composed of two right triangles facing each other with another triangle in the space between them. These designs appear similar to the triangular designs on the Bennington bag Àanking the central stars on each of the quillwork panels. Furthermore, the quilled leafs on the sleeves of one of these coats are quite similar to those on the top of the Bennignton bag. With the westward expansion of the Canadian fur trade and the emer- gence of Métis communities on the western Plains and in the Subarctic and Parklands regions of what are now the Canadian provinces of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta, artistic expressions and manufacturing tech- niques experienced a cross-pollination that can make it dif¿cult to draw clear distinctions between artistic styles of objects created by Aboriginal people, especially Algonquian speaking communities, and Métis individuals or communities. In her book on northern Athapaskan art, Kate Duncan described, “Nineteenth-century Algonkian work believed to have been made by the Métis of the Red River near Lake Winnipeg.” Distinctive elements of this embroidery style included relatively wide bands of woven quillwork and alternation between two motifs and an ABAB repetition, complex and iso- lated motifs, often used as “alternating design blocks,” outlining of designs with a different color, and a predominance of the colors red, blue, yellow and black against the background of the undyed white or beige quills.15

14. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=10O3mCpE5aY. 15. Duncan (1989:40, plate 4).

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According to linguist Peter Denny, Algonquian-speaking communities pre- ferred abstract designs that included vertical and horizontal symmetry, as well as rotational symmetry.16 Following these interpretations, the designs of the woven quillwork panels on the Bennington bag would fall within the common range of Algonquian abstract design preferences. The wives of fur traders such as Daniel Williams Harmon were exposed to contact with the wives of other fur traders through the travels and various postings of their husbands. After her marriage to Daniel Har- mon, Lisette Duval may have been exposed more to contact with other fur trade families, rather than Aboriginal communities beyond the horizon of the fur traders. For inspiration in regard to their artwork, these women likely drew not only on inÀuences from their Aboriginal communities of origin, but also on the work of other fur-trade wives with potentially different Aboriginal roots than their own, as well as on artistic inÀuences from motifs found on objects imported by European traders, such as textile clothing or rugs. Therefore, regardless of their ethnic background, these women even- tually created a style of embroidery and artistry that was unique to the fur trade, and perhaps closer to each other’s work than to that of any speci¿c Aboriginal community. It is possible, that this generic fur trade embroidery style originated or had its center in the Red River Settlement and radiated outward from there. Over the years, women from far-Àung Aboriginal communities, who had married a fur trader, or who came to a trading post to trade, were exposed to these styles and designs, which then may have inÀuenced their own artwork and that of their Aboriginal home communities. Different documents indicate various possibilities about Lisette Har- mon’s Aboriginal background. Lisette was born in about 1790. Her hus- band, Daniel Williams Harmon, ¿rst encountered her at South Branch House on the Saskatchewan River and described her as a “Canadian’s daughter, a girl of about fourteen years of age . . . Her mother is of the tribe of the Snare Indians, whose country lies along the Rocky Mountain.”17 It is possible that the “Snare” were an Aboriginal group living in what is now interior British Columbia, who may have been absorbed by the Sec-

16. Denny (2001). 17. Harmon (1922:118–119).

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wepemc (Shuswap). It is possible that the “Snare” were the same people that Alexander Henry encountered in the Thompson River region. The group that Henry described suffered frequent raids by Cree people living to the east of them. The people trading at South Branch House included Parkland/Plains Cree communities. Thus, it is possible that Lisette’s mother had initially come into a Cree community as a captive but then settled in her new community, where she later raised her daughter. According to Harmon, Lisette spoke Cree and French. Her personal history following her marriage to fur trader Daniel Williams Harmon, as documented in Harmon’s journal, and subsequent civil records following the Harmons’ move to the eastern United States in 1819 suggest several possible further inÀuences in Lisette Duval/Laval Harmon’s life. However, according to Harmon biographer John Spargo, as an adult Lisette’s youngest daughter Abby-Maria expressed pride in her “Cree heritage.”18

POSSIBLE USES OF THE BAG

Records at the Bennington Museum refer to this bag as a “shot bag,” an implement used to carry ammunition and tools needed to keep a muzzle- loading ¿rearm in operation.19 Hudson’s Bay Company fur trader James Isham listed shot pouches and powder horns, worn “upon our shoulder” as part of the standard attire of fur traders active in the Hudson Bay Lowlands and the interior.20 Paintings by the Swiss artist Peter Rindisbacher, who lived

18. Spargo (1950:70). Spargo seems to have based this statement on interviews with alumni of the ¿nishing school for girls that Abby Maria ran in Montreal. 19. Bennington Museum, Vermont. Letters detailing provenance. One letter written by May Peck Cramer, a great grandniece of Calvin Harmon who donated the bag to the museum in 1950, clarifying a note that was passed down with the bag, written by Cornelia Harmon Peck around 1880 and stating that the bag was passed from Cornelia to May’s father and hence to her. The note from Cornelia reads, “This shot bag was made by the wife of Daniel W. Harmon who belonged to the Hudsons Bay Company of the Northwest. The decorations were done with porcupine quills, which she colored herself. It is very remarkable they should have retained their color, for so long a time, as the bag was made about the year 1810. The Indian name for the shot bag is Pa-tus- se-non.” 20. Isham (1949:117). http://link.library.utoronto.ca/champlain/DigObj.cfm?Idno=9_96 837&Lang=eng&Page=0224&Size=3&query=bag&searchtype=Fulltext&startrow=1&Li mit=Item

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Figure 7. Early nineteenth century painting by Peter Rindisbacher, in upper left corner showing a powder horn and an embroidered bag decorated with two similar horizontal panels, tied to a muzzle-loading gun inside a tent.21

in the Red River settlement from 1821 to 1826, often show such bags in conjunction with ¿rearms. Rindisbacher’s paintings do not constitute unedited “snapshots” of fur trade life, but carefully constructed images that were composed to sell to an almost exclusively non-Aboriginal audience, catering to European tastes of the time. However, they also often contain extensive detail in regard to clothing, weaponry, and accoutrements worn and used by Native people, fur traders, and settlers. Rindisbacher’s frequent depictions of embroidered bags in close proximity to muzzle-loading ¿rearms, of course do not necessarily prove that such bags were exclusively used to carry ammunition and accou- trements for guns. For example, bags of this type were also reportedly used

21. Library and Archives Canada, MIKAN-No 3018018. For a similar pouch in a painting by Peter Rindisbacher, see King (1982:42).

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Figure 8. Early nineteenth century painting by Peter Rindisbacher, showing a Cree family at York Factory on Hudson Bay. Note the man’s hunting bag, carried on his chest, suspended from a strap around the neck.22

to carry tobacco and smoking utensils, or ¿re-making equipment.23 Perhaps, the interior of surviving bags could be examined for traces of substances related to ¿rearms use, such as black powder, lead, or weapons oil. Traces of tobacco, pigment, or tinder could perhaps be detected in the same way, indicating different uses of these bags. Another road of inquiry is the practical testing of reproductions of such bags. How well would they perform in the tasks that their use has been documented for? Are the positions in which Rindisbacher and other artists showed them being worn practical for such use? Rindisbacher, for example, showed one type of bag with a relatively short strap, worn around the neck, hanging down on the wearer’s chest. Another type of bag, with a longer carrying strap, was shown worn at the side with the strap over one

22. Library and Archives Canada, MIKAN-No. 2835784. See also: King (1982:37). 23. Oberholtzer (2004:337–338).

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shoulder, crossing the upper body diagonally. In some instances, Rindis- bacher showed both wearing methods on the same individual. To try to answer some of these questions, I manufactured a bag from home-tanned caribou hide (tanned by Thelma Bird of Peawanuck, Ontario), according to the speci¿cations and measurements provided for the Benning- ton bag by Jamie Franklin, curator at the Bennington Museum. The carrying strap of the bag is 6 cm wide and 101.5 cm long, plus 3.5 cm for tabs on either end used to attach the strap to the bag on the reverse side of the pouch, making the total length of the strap 108.5 cm. Neither the bag nor the strap is lined. It is possible that the strap was made from two layers of hide. According to Jamie Franklin, the bag shows little sign of use and the interior of the bag is remarkably clean with little or no residue, giving it a rather pristine appearance.

Figure 9. Collage of a portrait of Daniel Williams Harmon and a photo of the bag at the Bennington Museum.24

24. Portrait taken from the frontispiece of Lamb (1957). Special Collections, University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa.

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After ¿nishing the sewing of the “reproduction” bag and before try- ing it out for the ¿rst time, I expected to see something like the image in the following collage in regard to the bag’s ¿t, assuming that it had been made for Daniel Harmon. However, that was not the case. I am of somewhat less than average height, ca. 170 cm. Nonetheless, when I wore the bag with the strap over one shoulder the opening of the bag was closer to my armpit than my hip. I did not ¿nd any information suggesting that Daniel Harmon was either above or below average height. Nonetheless, it is dif¿cult to relate contem- porary average body height to body dimensions of Aboriginal and European people living in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Throughout most of the eighteenth century, Europeans, including those involved in the North American fur trade, were on average not as tall as Native people from the Hudson Bay Lowland region or the northern plains.25 According to anthropologist Richard Steckel, by the late nineteenth century the average body height for Plains adult males, aged 23 to 49 years was 171.6 cm among the Blackfoot, 169.4 cm among the Assiniboine, and 166.9 cm among the Comanche on the southern plains. By this time, Europeans born in the United States in the mid-nineteenth century had almost caught up to Native peoples of the northern Plains in regard to average body height.26 Fully assembled, with the strap attached to the bag, my reproduction is 81 cm long from the lower edge of the bag to the center of the carrying strap. Of this length, the bag makes up 30 cm and each usable half of the strap 51 cm, making the relation of bag length to strap length 1:1.7. Contemporary users of muzzle-loading ¿rearms, such as historical reenactors pointed out to me that the most convenient position for a shot bag is near the hip, when reloading a muzzle-loading ¿rearm, such as a trade gun from a standing position. However, Paul Kane’s portrait of Fran- cois Lucie, a Métis guide and interpreter at Fort Edmonton in the mid- to late-nineteenth century, shows him wearing a shot bag much higher, similar to the results of my experiment. When worn in this manner, I can comfortably reach into the pouch, while at the same time the armpit protects the open top of the bag. Fur- thermore, in this position it is possible to secure the bag with one’s elbow

25. Carlos and Lewis (2007:4). 26. Steckel and Prince (2001, Tables 1 and 2).

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Figure 10. Portrait of Francois Lucie, a Métis guide at Ft. Edmonton in 1846, by Paul Kane.27

when walking, running, or riding on horseback to prevent it from bouncing up and down and thus spilling part of the contents. Hudson’s Bay Company fur trader Andrew Graham noted about the manner of wear of shot pouches and powder horns among the Swampy Cree:

In winter when they [Swampy Cree] travel the outer garment is tucked above the knees, by a belt, which is sometimes only a leather thong. At others they use a belt three inches broad and neatly worked with porcupine quills; upon this is hung the hatchet, and a small bag called Skippertoggin which contains utensils for smoking a pipe and kindling a ¿re. At the breast is a case curiously wrought with quill-work; in it is suspended the bayonet to be ready on any occasion. The powder-horn and shot-pouch are slung on each side; the latter is made of the skin of the moose or deer. Some of them

27. Image taken from: http://¿rstpeoplesofcanada.com/fp_metis/fp_metis_origins.html.

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are very prettily ornamented with quill-work, beads and brass tags made out of their old kettles. The gun is carried over the shoulder and clubbed.28

This would indicate that in winter, powder horn and shot pouch were worn over the shoulder on top of heavy winter clothing. Even with allow- ances for lesser body height of Europeans at the time, it would seem that a relatively short carrying strap would be impractical in this situation. When worn around the neck, at least in my case, the bag hangs much lower than those shown in the Rindisbacher paintings. Furthermore, in almost all of the paintings that I examined, the bags worn on the chest seem to lay almost completely Àat against the wearer’s chest without any bulge, suggesting that they were almost empty. When I ¿lled the test bag to capacity, a substantial bulge on the chest resulted that is not consistent with the depictions in historic paintings. Besides distorting the woven quillwork decoration, such a bulge would be impractical, especially since these bags seem to commonly have been made without a Àap to close them. Worn in this manner, there would be little protection against rain or snow entering the open bag from the top. However, worn Àat against the chest, the bags provide a striking decorative appearance. Thus, perhaps their principal function was not transportation, but dis- play. The fact that the Bennington bag, for example, shows very few traces of wear supports this possibility. In contrast, mid- to late-nineteenth century shot pouches from the northern plains often show signs of heavy use and considerable damage from wear and tear. Frequently, they have a powder horn, a small leather bag for lead balls, a powder measure, or other muzzle- loader accoutrements attached to them.29 If the date of 1810 suggested by Cornelia Harmon’s 1880 note in regard to the time of manufacture of the bag is correct, Lisette would have made this bag between the time of the death of her newborn twin sons and the departure of her three-year-old son George for Vermont.30 Perhaps, she made the bag for him before he left to obtain an “English” education out

28. Graham (1969:147). 29. Gilman and Schneider (1987:77). Pouch: 15 î 14 cm, Minnesota Historical Society, MHS 1981.4.59 a,b; (Hanson 1996:38–39, Cat. No. 1909; 57–58, Cat. No. 1935). 30. Lamb (1957:125, 138).

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east, as his father Daniel Harmon wished. Thus, the bag could have been made for a child, not an adult. Eastern Cree people on James Bay had a walking-out ceremony for little boys, marking their ¿rst steps toward their adult occupations as hunters. During this ceremony, the boys would be equipped with plainer and less elaborate versions of the hunting accoutre- ments used by adult men, such as powder horns and shot pouches. When they walked out of the family dwelling, they were to receive the blessing of the ¿rst rays of the rising sun, which was also said to bless their hunt- ing equipment.31 The Archives of Ontario hold a photograph of a Cree boy with shot pouch and powder horn, taken ca. 1860.32 Because the bag in this image was likely adult-sized, the strap had been adjusted to situate the bag halfway between the hip and the armpit. The manner of wearing the powder horn and shot pouch on straps across each shoulder is consistent with HBC fur trader Andrew Graham’s description. In contrast, in Plains Cree communities, instead of holding a walking- out ceremony, a boy’s ¿rst hunting success was celebrated.33 While Lisette likely grew up in Plains/Parklands Cree communities, it is possible that she may have picked up a similar concept or custom from other Aboriginal and/ or Métis people working in the fur trade, who had a Subarctic background. Bags of this type were also used to carry tobacco and smoking uten- sils or ¿re-making equipment.34 In her dissertation, Métis scholar and artist Sherry Farrell-Racette pointed out that so-called “¿re bags” were used by Métis and Subarctic Aboriginal men. These bags were highly valued and often constituted an individual’s most essential possession.35 Often, these bags were highly decorated with quillwork and later glass beads. In their importance to Subarctic and Métis men, they may have ranked similar to that

31. Oberholtzer (2004:341). 32. This image has been published in Oberholtzer (2004:353). The image is from Archives of Ontario, ACC 6440 S11 705. Since then, copyright perceptions by the Archives of Ontario in regard to this image have changed. Thus, the image could not be included here. 33. Mandelbaum (1979:224, 304). 34. Oberholtzer (2004:337–338). 35. Farrell-Racette (2004:131–132).

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of quivers and bow cases among Plains Aboriginal people. For example, the American artist and ethnographer George Catlin, who traveled the northern plains in the early 1830s, pointed out that Mandan and Hidatsa men in what is now central often perceived their archery sets, including a quiver and bow case, as their most important material possessions.36 Henry Wolf Chief, a Hidatsa bow maker interviewed by the ethnographer Gilbert L. Wilson in the 1910s, stated that Mandan and Hidatsa men would wear especially elaborate and highly decorated quivers, often made from otter fur, on special occasions, such as public appearances, diplomatic missions, or courting.37 According to Wolf Chief, such quivers, especially those made from otter fur, were not meant for actual use in hunting and combat but had mainly representative functions.38 Among Subarctic Aboriginal people with access to the fur trade, ¿re- arms gradually replaced traditional distance weapons, such as the bow- and-arrow as the principal big game hunting and combat weapon. The Red River Métis, whose Aboriginal component mainly derived from Cree and Ojibwa people and whose European ancestors had brought the use of ¿re- arms to northern North America, also relied more on the use of guns than bows and arrows for big game hunting. It is possible that among northern Cree and Ojibwa people, and among the Red River Métis and Hudson- Bay-country-born, highly decorated “¿re bags” or “shot pouches” served to represent the wearer’s social status and inÀuence, rather than being pri- marily functional. Similarities in occupational activities in the fur trade to some extent necessitated similarities in equipment between Aboriginal, European, and Métis people. For example, Andrew Graham described the attire worn by fur traders as a mixture of European and Aboriginal clothing and equipment: “The winter dress of the English in these parts [Hudson Bay Lowlands] is a mixture of the European and the Indian [. . .].”39 Highly decorated “¿re

36. Catlin (1989:83, letter 12); Lindeman (1962:80–82). 37. Catlin (1989:93, letter 13). 38. Weitzner (1979:243). In contrast, Prince Maximilian observed a Hidatsa man returning from the hunt, who wore a richly decorated quiver of “panther fur” (Weid 1966, Part III: 66). 39. Graham (1969:297).

SP_PAC41_02_020-039.indd 37 10/1/13 8:15 AM 38 ROLAND BOHR

bags” or “shot pouches” were owned (and worn?) by Euro-American fur traders and explorers.40 While my experiments answered some questions, they raised others. Avenues for further research include a closer examination of terms for con- tainers like the Bennington bag from Cree and other Aboriginal languages; a close examination of other bags in museum collections; and deeper research into records that could provide more information on the provenance of artifacts similar to the Bennington bag.

REFERENCES

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40. Peers (1999).

SP_PAC41_02_020-039.indd 38 10/1/13 8:15 AM LISETTE HARMON AND HER HUNTING BAG 39

King, J. C. H. 1982. Thunderbird and lightning: Indian life in northeastern North Amer- ica 1600–1900. London: British Museum Publications Ltd. Lamb, William Kaye. 1957. Sixteen years in the Indian Country: The journal of Daniel Williams Harmon 1800–1816. Toronto: The Macmillan Company of Canada Ltd. Linderman, Frank Bird. 1962 [1930]. Plenty Coups, chief of the Crows, Lincoln: Uni- versity of Nebraska Press. Mandelbaum, David G. 1979. The Plains Cree: An ethnographic, historical and com- parative study. Regina: Canadian Plains Research Center, University of Regina. Oberholtzer, Cath. 2004. “Just hanging around”: James Bay Cree bags, Papers of the 35th Algonquian Conference. Ed. by H. C. Wolfart, pp. 337–362. Winnipeg: Uni- versity of Manitoba. Peers, Laura. 1999. “Many tender ties”: The shifting contexts and meanings of the S. Black bag. World Archaeology 31.2:288–302. Schulze-Thulin, Axel, ed. 1987. Indianer der Prärien und Plains: Reisen und Sammlungen des Herzogs Paul Wilhelm von Württemberg (1822–24) und des Prinzen Maximi- lian zu Wied (1833–34) im Linden Museum Stuttgart. Stuttgart: Linden Museum. Spargo, John. 1950. Two Bennington-born explorers and makers of modern Canada. Bradford, Vermont: The Green Mountain Press Printers and Publishers. Steckel, Richard H., and Joseph M. Prince. 2001. The tallest in the world: Native Ameri- cans of the in the nineteenth century. American Economic Review 91:287–294. Weitzner, Bella. 1979. Notes on the Hidatsa Indians recorded by the late Gilbert L. Wilson. New York: The American Museum of Natural History. Whiteford, Andrew Hunter. 1986. The origins of Great Lakes beaded bandolier bags. American Indian Art Magazine 11.3.32–43. Wied, Maximilian Prinz zu. 1966. Travels in the interior of North America. Vols. 22–24 of Early western travels: 1748–1846, Part III. Ed. by Reuben Gold Thwaites. New York: AMS Press.

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