Delaware pouch; ca. 1820<BR> Hide, porcupine quills, wool, hair, metal, pigments; 25 x 26 cm.<BR> RMV 865-7; auction purchase from the G.A. Wilken estate, Leiden, 1892<BR> <BR> The professional background of George A. Wilken (1847-1891), professor of (Indonesian) ethnology at Leiden University in the 1880s, provides no clue on the history of this Native North American artifact. Another Indian specimen in his collection was an eastern Great Lakes area, possibly Delaware, fingerwoven sash from the early nineteenth century (RMV 865-8), also lacking any data. Hovens (introduction to this volume) suggests that Wilken acquired these artifacts in 1880 in the United States when he was on his way home from the Dutch East Indian colonies. A more specific provenance at this time cannot be established.<BR> <BR> The flat rectangular pouch, made of dark brown-dyed deerskin, is decorated with porcupine quillwork and red-dyed hair tassels in metal cones. The pouch is attached to a braided red woolen shoulder strap with tasseled strings at both ends.<BR> <BR> Nineteen pouches of this type have been located in public and private collections, their age ranging from the 1780s to the 1830s. In their formal features they show strong influence from the Great Lakes Indian art tradition. However, the abstract designs of their quillwork set them apart from the latter tradition. Surviving fragments of provenance identify these pouches as hunter bags or shot pouches of the Delaware Indians. Powder horns were still attached to some of the surviving pouches.<BR> <BR> In the course of colonial warfare and forced migrations refugees from the mid-Atlantic seaboard lost much of their original culture. Settling in Ohio in the 1730s they forged a new tribal organization. In this renascence of a cultural identity, Delaware people adopted the arts and crafts of neighboring Ottawas and other Great Lakes Indians.<BR> <BR> The decoration of this particular example suggests an origin date of ca. 1820, when the Delawares were moving west out of the Ohio Valley and across the Mississippi River. Probably in response to their new surroundings, by the 1830s the Delawares gradually changed the style of their shot-pouches, transforming them into flamboyantly beadworked bandoleer bags (cf. RMV 360-9961).<BR> <BR> Ted J. Brasser<BR> Canadian Museum of Civilization, Ottawa<BR> <BR> <BR> Tassen uit de Eastern Woodlands werden gemaakt van hele dierenhuiden of gesneden in lange rechthoekige zakken die over een gordel gevouwen werden. Op de rechthoekige tassen werden in "quill work", decoraties van de pennen van het stekelvarken geometrische patronen en afbeeldingen van geesten zoals de Zon of de "Thunderbird" aangebracht. In de tassen werden persoonlijke bezittingen en voedsel bewaard. Die met religieuze afbeeldingen zouden gediend kunnen hebben om de medicijnbundel van de eigenaar te bewaren. Gedurende de achttiende eeuw ontwikkelden Indiaanse volkeren de bandelier; een tas die gebaseerd is op de munitietassen van Britse soldaten uit dezelfde periode. Hoewel de vorm afweek van die van de oudere inheemse tassen werden ze op dezelfde wijze en met dezelfde motieven gedecoreerd.<BR> <BR>