Many communities located in the Eastern Woodlands fashioned narrow hand-plaited or finger-woven sashes (or belts) used to bundle cradleboards, tow sleds and toboggans, or fasten garments. Before the arrival of Europeans, artists sourced the materials used to manufacture these items from local trees and plants, using the inner bark of basswood, cedar, and elm; fiber from milkweed and dogbane; and strips of moose hide. On the East Coast, the Penobscot colored basswood fibers with mineral dyes. The finest finger weaving was embellished with dyed porcupine quills or moose hair. After European colonization, artists began using commercially made and readily available materials obtained through trade, such as the spun wool and glass beads on this sash.

As Penobscot people adopted European muzzle-loading muskets in the 17th century, they also began using powder flasks to carry gunpowder. Typically made from cow horns, these containers served the practical purpose of keeping gunpowder dry, but they were also engraved with elaborate designs and exchanged as gifts. This practice was part of military life for both Native and non-Native men, and it can be difficult to discern whether certain powder horns are Indigenous or European. The geometric patterns on this one show its connections to Eastern Woodlands artistic traditions; the double curves along the sides may express the importance of balance and alliance, particularly during times of war.

Long before contact with Europeans, Mi’kmaq women of coastal Maine and eastern Canada wove and stitched dyed porcupine quills into their clothing, jewelry, and regalia. As British and French colonization dramatically shifted their lives and economies, they created souvenirs to sell to settlers and tourists around Niagara Falls and other scenic sites. Keenly aware of European and American tastes, these artists preserved traditional techniques within new forms. This small handbag, a birch bark container with quillwork designs, looks like fashionable Euro-American versions of the time with its rounded body, flap closure, and short ribbon handle.

These moccasins provide insight into the adaptability of Indigenous lives and culture, and the history of the nation they represent. Before European settlers brought glass beads and manufactured ribbons to the Americas, artists embellished their clothing with porcupine quills and moose hair. As early as the 1500s, textile arts in the Americas began to change with the increasing availability of trade cloth, glass beads, and silk ribbons. Artists historically created traditional patterns using European materials. Here, symmetrical images of flowers, leaves, and other local plants are outlined by white beads and rows of zigzagging lines. This pair is made from lightly worn supple deer hide and ornamented with dark velvet, bright red wool, and floral beadwork. They would have been worn with regalia or traded as a souvenir.

Made as a trade item for non-Native consumption, this birch bark tea container represents a category of domestic object not known in the Indigenous world until the arrival of the Europeans. The material from which it is made adapted perfectly to its use: birch bark is waterproof when solid and also antimicrobial, making it ideal for keeping household pests away. The sewn floral motifs decorating the outside of the container lend a feminine touch that would have made the object more appealing to its intended audience—women from European households. According to family history, George Mountain (1789–1863), a British Canadian Anglican Bishop, acquired this canister in 1844 while on a missionary trip from Montreal to the Red River Settlement.

Every feather and leaf on this birch bark cigar case is carefully embroidered—not with thread, but with dyed moose hair—likely by a Huron-Wendat woman. With the formalization of the tourist industry along the St. Lawrence River and Great Lakes in the 19th century, more non-Native people sought souvenirs made by Indigenous artists. Although these artists contributed to a sophisticated, international economy, many tourists and settlers perceived their communities as simpler and more wholesome than the industrialized centers of England and Europe. The idealized Indigenous figure on the right, holding a pipe and sitting next to a campfire, suggests how Huron-Wendat people may have used stereotypes to market their work.

The Mi’kmaq woman who made the seat and back panel of this chair would likely have trained within a community of women artists, taught to harvest birch bark without harming trees, make dyes from local plants, and weave porcupine quills into geometric patterns. Along with their language and histories in present-day Maine and northeastern Canada, Mi’kmaq peoples have passed down knowledge of their artistic techniques through generations. By the mid-1800s, artists responded to the Victorian souvenir market by adding quillwork to small lidded boxes, tea cozies, and Renaissance Revival chairs like this one. Some settlers saw these objects as a sign of assimilation, but they also brought Indigenous design into white households and created a way for resilient Mi’kmaq women to preserve the art of quillwork.

The crooked knife, known to the Cree and many other nations of the Eastern Woodlands as a mocotaugan, is a one-handed draw knife used by canoe builders, snowshoe makers, and basket weavers. The object has different names among various groups, but it was universally used for basket making. The maker—usually a man—used this tool to strip and split layers of bark from an ash tree. These utilitarian objects were ergonomically fitted to the individual hand of the owner, and their decorations and design range from simple to elaborate.