For the projects and bark work of the River du Lievre group the illustrations and information given in an article by V. In the case of Tetes deBoule, we have the published results of the field work of D. However, we cannot say that contact with Europeans has empirically created the art of the people.
The outside of the rim is reinforced with a maple ring, tied on with spruce or basswood wrapping. The resemblance between these bark-folders and the parflechs of the Plains area is a feature of comparative ethnology which must not be overlooked. While the forms of bark containers in the various Algonquin bands are also strikingly similar to those in Lake St.
The latter features appear more frequently as the boundary of the Ojibwa habitat is approached. Sticky knitting, it may be added, is also a characteristic of the work of the Wabanaki groups. The rim wrapping of Algonquin birch bark containers is of fir root (wa'dap*) in most cases, although pieces of boiled inner bark of woolwood (wi'gub*) and elm are occasionally substituted times, as these materials are used in the forestry economy.
Below the latter is a lid that is loosely attached to the edge of the container with leather strips.
TYPES OF DESIGNS ON ALGONQUIN BIRCHBARK CONTAINERS The Algonquin techniques of design, namely, the production of
The same type of cover occurs in the containers of the Montagnais to the east, but it becomes rarer in passing to the west and is replaced by the flat lid without cuff among the Cree and the Athabaskan groups. In the former, the cut-out stencil is placed on the dark surface of the material and the area surrounding the pattern is scraped away until the lighter undersurface is exposed. The coming together of the two, however, assumes a certain form among the Algonquin, as well as, to a small extent, among the Mon-.
The vessels (fig. 34) made by women of the Timiskaming group show some departure in ornamental design from those of the eastern Algonquin groups, in the greater frequency of their animal figures. A discussion of the decorative devices of this ribbon would not be complete without mentioning the process of sewing the birch bark cutouts themselves directly onto the surface of the vessel with a border stitch of spruce roots. Buckshot (aged 74), one of the oldest craftsmen of the group, could not testify that he had ever seen bark vessels so decorated, viz.
Research and interpretation of the historical significance of spruce root stitching and cut, stitched designs leads to consideration of the possibility that these techniques are precursors to the porcupine quill mosaic process that occasionally occurs among the Algonkian peoples of the Great Lakes region and to the east. In several cases, the ribbon bow appears as a design pattern.^" The Algonquin artist is fully aware of the origins of these particular patterns in her repertoire. I have mentioned the example of the yellow pond lily symbol in particular, as it provides an opportunity to reconnect the Algonquin artistic motivation with the indigenous and locally distinctive facility in a tribal environment.
A formalism in plant representation is strikingly exhibited in the series of slightly varied outlines which show little regard for specific botanical features of the plants selected for reproduction. We remember that Wissler, in a study of the art principles of the Plains Indians, focused attention on a similar aesthetic conviction in Sioux art. This trend is to be expected for a people historically and geographically approaching the cultural stature of the Ojibwa.
On the sides of the larger baskets, where the space invites you to view the ornaments, animal silhouettes appear in portraits in various settings of ponds, swamps and clusters. A distinguishing sign of night horizons is the presence of a star or crescent moon above. They stand out most vividly in the experience of the natives, and seem to take their place in the best achievements of their art.
Vertical symmetry (that is, where the design is repeated by turning the pattern upside down or upside down on its top or bottom) is not in evidence in the art of the bands treated here, so far as material warrants the statement. I would infer, from a general estimate of the evidence we possess, that the animal figures precede the floral motifs.
THE CONSCIOUS ELEMENTS OF ALGONQUIN DESIGN MOTIVATION To what extent the creation of animal and plant designs among the
THE CONSCIOUS ELEMENTS OF ALGONQUIN DESIGN MOTIVATION To what extent does the creation of animals and plants between the. Where, we might ask, might an unconscious motif in phytozoomorphic representation appear in the artworks of these groups? That there appears to be at least a suggestion of a vague approximation of subconscious statements in the production of the bitten designs is a point to consider in an unbiased examination of evidence.
It requires an analysis of the goals and practices of design and of the designers' own feelings about the outcome of their ordinary efforts. Insofar as the discussion of controlling factors in the maldng of decorative tooth-bitten patterns has yielded results, it can be said that the makers of these blind sketches do not claim to know exactly what patterns should emerge from their teeth in most cases . However, there is a shade of randomness in the production of bitten patterns that can be attributed to those who are so prone to subconscious influences.
To what extent the deeply personal feelings and experiences of the natives, who alternately suffered and enjoyed the bosom of the wilderness, influence the forms of patterns created by teeth with often closed eyes and an active imagination, we may never know.
CHRONOLOGY OF DESIGN
The provenance of "block" printing basket decoration brings us to the consideration of art over a wide area that extends from Delaware, Munsee and Mahican in the mid-Atlantic region across southern New England, Mohegan, Pequot and Nehantic, and then, after a break in the distribution presented by the Iroquois ,^^ who do not stamp or paint patterns on their baskets, back to the upper St. Block-stamping in basket ornamentation is therefore probably an extremely early indigenous development among the Eastern Algonquin peoples, and one which, by some trend of the migration, was spread northward to the later Algonquin itself. The women, for their part, found employment in dull times and in winter making birch bark and rail baskets for the more appreciative element of the incoming whites—the families of.
The "bush" Indian eventually met gentler white people who admired and liked some of his gifts and accomplishments. The latter's discovery that the Indians could do more than cut, drive, row, cook, sweat, and freeze in lumber and pulp mill "shacks" sparked interest in the "inferior ". The discovery of native arts of delicate form, ski technique and tasteful ornamentation, of the symbolic language of pictorial writing in the alphabet of beasts, flowers, and trees, brought out something that both races could understand. Indigenous groups in other parts of the country have gone through similar transitions in the rise and fall of their folk crafts.
In Algonquin's case, another generation will write the answer to the question of the survival or eventual extinction of a promising bom of artistic inspiration. In a recent paper on Montagnais art in birch bark (Speck, 1937) I have evaluated some evidence adduced by commentators to establish the Eiu-opean derivation of the floral and curve motifs so characteristic of the peoples' design styles Algonkian of the Northeast. To emphasize the social factors of art culture, leaving aside the understanding of what force is exerted by the environmental conditions of nature, I am sure will betray a stubborn disregard for a great functional influence.
It seems, moreover, that these peoples of the forest have already taken some steps on the road leading to the formation of a crude scriptural system, at least insofar as the pictorial representation of object and idea can be so considered. I will then take the opportunity to show in another article how the block printing of designs was accomplished in the decorative art composition of other Algonkian groups of the Northeast (Munsee, Delaware, Mahikan, and the early Southern peoples of New England), a distribution which points to an area of specialization in art history that could be said to possess some conventional letterforms for representation. of ideas.
![Figure 13. — Symmetrica] band floral designs from birchbark containers (River Desert Band).](https://thumb-ap.123doks.com/thumbv2/123dok/11159322.0/29.540.46.513.103.673/figure-symmetrica-floral-designs-birchbark-containers-river-desert.webp)
