Featured Native American collection

I'm going to start a thread here in in the general antique section because my collection is so extensive. I doubt it will all get cataloged here as I think I'd have to retire first before I'd have time to organize it all. It also does not all necessarily fit in one category.

Back in 1899, my great grandmother was appointed by the Department of the Interior, Office of Indian Affairs, to the position of Seamstress in the Shoshone School in Wyoming at a salary of "$540 per annum". While she elected not to accept the position, my great grandparents made several trips out west in the early 1900's as the family farm would shut down for the winter as the hay they sold for the horses in NYC didn't grow well during Upstate NY winters. They purchased many Native American items, from pottery to rugs, as well as ephemera and what ever else. My great aunt also made trips out west into the mid 1900's.

Also, my great grandfather, and quite possibly his father as well, since they plowed the fields by horse drawn plow, could hear the plow as it struck rock. In this manner, they collected many hundreds of arrowheads, etc. over the decades.

First, I'll start with a sampling of some of the more interesting ephemera.

Generally, from left to right, top to bottom:

Arizona magazine August 1914

The Native American, Commencement 1912 U.S. Indian Training School, Phoenix

The Native American, Oct. 22, 1910, United States Indian Training School, Phoenix

United States Indian Industrial Training School souvenir booklet, Phoenix May 1905

1908 postcard of Chief Geronimo

Various miniature Indian rugs, measuring from 6" x 8 1/2" to 3" x 5 1/4".
I'm not sure where these came from. They look like advertising samples, and the smallest ones are marked "Factory No. 049 1st Dist. N.Y." and "3rd district of N.Y. Factory No. 2153"

1908 postcard of Chief Geronimo

 

Next up is some pottery, purchased by my great grandmother in 1908, made by the Maricopa tribe for the tourist trade. We've been told by an appraiser that the pigs and fishes bowl is very interesting because it was made in a very dry part of the country.

The largest bowl measures about 6" high and 7" across.

 

Next up is a Native American basket, possibly of the same era, but I don't have any recorded family history on this. It measures about 4" high and 6" across.

 

Some beadwork. The long one measures 47", the short piece including string, 10".

 

drooling!!

 

Another couple of necklaces.

 

Catlinite pipestone beads?

 

This is just a sample of what I have for arrowheads, axe/tomahawk heads, pottery shards, etc.

The notes with some of the items are from my grandmother, as she researched some of this stuff a very long time ago.

There are just too many arrowheads to lay them all out now. Maybe once I move to Florida next year, I can tackle that project.

The largest stone to right, an Indian rolling pin, is about 20" long.



Pottery shards, and pipe fragments.


Trade axes, stones with grooves for making thread and string from sinew



Just a sample of the arrowheads, etc.

 

This is the largest rug I have, which measures 76" x 49". It is not as old as some black/grey/white rugs that my mother still has for now, which I expect were purchased by my great grandparents.

I have another half dozen smaller rugs, some as old as this one perhaps, but most are probably from the mid 1900's when I think my great aunt went back out west to do some of her touristy stuff.

 

I think so. There was a note with these beads from my grandmother, but I wasn't sure how to decipher it. lol It's all put away back in the closet for now.

 

I don't think the long stone is a rolling pin,looks more like an acorn grinding stone................. http://oldeuropeanculture.blogspot.com/2014/12/bullaun-stones.html

 

I'm not sure myself. When does a stone stop being a pestle, or a grinding stone, and become a rolling pin? I suppose I shouldn't really use the term rolling pin, as that isn't a Native American invention. Grinding stone would be more appropriate.

In the next post below that with the arrowheads, there is an obvious pestle on the left in the last picture, as one end is ground quite flat compared to the other end.

 

Cant help but I NEED those little felt rugs for my dollhouses !

 

The little 'rugs' are early 20th century cigarette felts/flannels...

~Cheryl

 

There ya go! @DragonflyWink is spot on. Search "tobacco felts" on eBay, and you can buy them quite reasonably to your hearts content. They come in a wide variety of styles too.

 

And, unfortunately, the large rug is not Native American, since it was woven on a standard horizontal floor loom, rather than an upright Navajo loom.

The Navajo are the only U.S. tribe that weaves rugs, which are identified not by the design, but by the way they are woven. They will never be woven with fringe on the ends. In fact, it is physically impossible to weave a rug with fringe on both ends on a Navajo loom.

From the photos, it appears to be Mexican, based on the way the fringe is tied off, or possibly Chimayo (Hispanic, northern New Mexico). But, in any event, definitely not Navajo or Native American.

 

Good to know. Some of the smaller rugs I have do not have fringe on them. I did have an antique appraiser look at this rug, and he valued it at a little under $1000 in the northeast at auction, but if sold at auction out west it would fetch about double that.

 

that i'd like to see..

 

you could look towards Hupa , Yurok, Karuk... some time after 1900....

 

A quick google image search shows all three as making baskets like mine. I wouldn't know how to tell one from the other!

What's that? The smaller blankets?