Skip to main content
The exact identification of its producers is hampered by the heterogeneous composition of the Native population in southern Manitoba. By 1800 large numbers of Ojibwa from Minnesota had moved into this region, assimilating the local Cree and Assiniboine Indians. All regional bands, irrespective of their designation as Ojibwa or Cree, consisted of such mixed groups, some of them even including Ottawa Indians from Michigan. This early panel bag reveals the amalgamation of Cree and Ojibwa art styles that are at the root of the subsequent emergence of a distinct Red River style. (From the Catalog of the Thaw Collection of American Indian Art, 2nd ed.)
Exhibition History"Art Des Indiens D'Amerique Du Nord Dans La Collection D'Eugene Thaw," Mona Bismarck Foundation, Paris, France, Somogy Editions D'Art, January 21, 2000 - March 18, 2000.
"Treasures from the Thaw Collection," Wheelwright Museum of American Indian Art. Santa Fe, NM, May 1, 2000 - December 31, 2000.
ProvenanceAcquired in the 19th century by a member of the McHaffie-Gordon family, Wigtownshire, Scotland; private collection, Edinburgh, Scotland; Phillips Auctions, London; Walter M. Banko, Montreal, Quebec
BibliographyVincent, Gilbert T. Masterpieces of American Indian Art. New York: Harry Abrams, 1995, p.44.
Perriot, Francoise, and Slim Batteux, trans. Arts des Indiens d'Amerique du Nord: Dans la Collection d'Eugene et Clare Thaw. Paris: Somogy, edition d'art, 1999, p. 70, fig. 56.
Vincent, Gilbert et al. Art of the North American Indians: The Thaw Collection. Cooperstown, New York: Fenimore Art Museum, 2000, p.169.
Fognell, Eva and Alexander Brier Marr, eds. Art of the North American Indians: The Thaw Collection at the Fenimore Art Museum, 2nd ed. Cooperstown, New York: Fenimore Art Museum, 2016, p. 185.
Culture
Anishinaabe (Red River Ojibwa)
Bag
Datec. 1790
DimensionsOverall (Includes Fringe): 23 × 13 in. (58.4 × 33 cm)
Object numberT0089
Credit LineGift of Eugene V. and Clare E. Thaw
Photograph by John Bigelow Taylor, NYC
Label TextThis sinew-sewn rectangular flat pouch of painted buffalo skin with its bottom panel of loom-woven pony beads is an extremely rare example of a type of belt pouch that later acquired widespread popularity from James Bay westward to the Columbia River and the Yukon. The geometric paintings on this skin pouch are similar to those decorating long skin coats from the Manitoba region in 1780-1820 (c.f. fig. XX ); the buffalo skin itself narrows its origin down to the southern parts of that region. Pony beads of the early fur trade have been woven with sinew thread on a warp of red-ochred thin leather strings, reminiscent of Great Lakes and northeastern artifacts of the 18th century. Also the general construction of the bag is clearly derived from a painted and quill-worked prototype known to have been collected from the Great Lakes area in the 1720s. People raised in a Great Lakes art tradition apparently created this panel bag in southern Manitoba. The lower Red River valley in that region became a production center of such bags by 1830 and this example is an important and rare document in the transition from a Great Lakes tradition to a distinct variant to the northwest. The first distinctive feature of the Red River style is already present on this bag: the geometric pattern woven in the bottom panel. This design - a rectangle in the center, smaller rectangles in the four corners, and triangles between the corners - remained very popular for many decades to come.The exact identification of its producers is hampered by the heterogeneous composition of the Native population in southern Manitoba. By 1800 large numbers of Ojibwa from Minnesota had moved into this region, assimilating the local Cree and Assiniboine Indians. All regional bands, irrespective of their designation as Ojibwa or Cree, consisted of such mixed groups, some of them even including Ottawa Indians from Michigan. This early panel bag reveals the amalgamation of Cree and Ojibwa art styles that are at the root of the subsequent emergence of a distinct Red River style. (From the Catalog of the Thaw Collection of American Indian Art, 2nd ed.)
Exhibition History"Art Des Indiens D'Amerique Du Nord Dans La Collection D'Eugene Thaw," Mona Bismarck Foundation, Paris, France, Somogy Editions D'Art, January 21, 2000 - March 18, 2000.
"Treasures from the Thaw Collection," Wheelwright Museum of American Indian Art. Santa Fe, NM, May 1, 2000 - December 31, 2000.
ProvenanceAcquired in the 19th century by a member of the McHaffie-Gordon family, Wigtownshire, Scotland; private collection, Edinburgh, Scotland; Phillips Auctions, London; Walter M. Banko, Montreal, Quebec
BibliographyVincent, Gilbert T. Masterpieces of American Indian Art. New York: Harry Abrams, 1995, p.44.
Perriot, Francoise, and Slim Batteux, trans. Arts des Indiens d'Amerique du Nord: Dans la Collection d'Eugene et Clare Thaw. Paris: Somogy, edition d'art, 1999, p. 70, fig. 56.
Vincent, Gilbert et al. Art of the North American Indians: The Thaw Collection. Cooperstown, New York: Fenimore Art Museum, 2000, p.169.
Fognell, Eva and Alexander Brier Marr, eds. Art of the North American Indians: The Thaw Collection at the Fenimore Art Museum, 2nd ed. Cooperstown, New York: Fenimore Art Museum, 2016, p. 185.
On View
On viewc. 1800
