by Autumn Epple
Within the collection at the National Museums Scotland is a magnificent example of Haudenosaunee beadwork from the Victorian era. The GKS has a fair amount of information on this chatelaine bag (a formal waist bag worn by 19th century women), which would have been sold to non-Native tourists at Niagara Falls. Possibly Tuscarora in origin, this bag uses both opaque and “greasy” (shiny) beads, velveteen fabric, cheap cotton fabric, and cardboard backing for the beadwork. Floral patterns like this are common in Onkwehonwe designs to this day.
What is striking about this delicate piece is that it would have been sold to non-Native women, created for the livelihood of the artist and her family. GKS notes that in 1857, a pattern for this type of bag was made available in a British women’s magazine, so Onkwehonwe would have followed such a pattern. The bag itself represents a crossover of a settler item being made in an Indigenous fashion. The original buyer of the bag would have been on a leisure trip when they purchased it, whereas the artist who made it likely did not experience such luxury. Both women were probably proud of the bag for very different reasons.
The 2007 research team who compiled the information on the bag consisted of Cory Willmott, Heidi Bohaker, Laura Peers, Ruth Phillips, Keith Jamieson, Alan Corbiere, Henrietta Lidchi, Robert Storrie, Chantal Knowles and Brenda McGoff.