“ II. Mohegan baskets (_a_, _b_, and _c_ painted). 51
“ III. Mohegan baskets. 53
a--Painted.
b--Shows bottom construction.
“ IV. Niantic and Mohegan baskets. 55
a--Mohegan washing basket,
b--Niantic storage basket made about 1840 by Mrs.
Mathews at Black Point (near Lyme, Conn.)
“ V. Mohegan carrying baskets. 57
“ VI. Mohegan baskets, fancy work baskets, and wall pocket. 59
“ VII. Tunxis baskets. Made by Pually Mossuck, a Tunxis
woman from Farmington, Conn., who died about
1890 at Mohegan. Lower left hand basket slightly
painted. 61
“ VIII. Scatticook baskets, made by Rachel Mawee, Abigail
Mawee, and Viney Carter, who died at Kent, Conn.
about 1895. 63
“ IX. Oneida stamped basket (Heye collection). 65
“ X. Mohegan and Niantic moccasins. 67
a--Mohegan moccasins.
b--Niantic moccasins from the old reservation at
Black Point, near Lyme, Conn.
“ XI. Mohegan and Niantic beaded bags (3 from the Heye
collection). 69
“ XII. Mohegan corn mortars and stone pestle. 71
“ XIII. Mohegan ladles and spoons. 73
Decorative Art of Indian Tribes of Connecticut.
A fortunate phase of the research work among the Indians of New England
has recently led to the extension of our knowledge of the decorative
art of the eastern Algonkin tribes. This has been made possible by the
discovery of specimens, and by information furnished by several aged
Indians of the Mohegan and Niantic tribes of eastern Connecticut.[1]
During several visits in the winter of 1912-13, Mrs. Henry Mathews
(Mercy Nonsuch), the only full-blooded survivor of the Niantic Indians,
formerly inhabiting the shore of Long Island sound around the mouth of
Niantic river, and the Mohegans, Cynthia Fowler, Charles Mathews, and
the late Fidelia Fielding, the last person who could speak the Mohegan
language, all contributed towards the material here presented.[2]
The principal field of decoration among the Mohegan and Niantic, so far
as we can now tell, seems to have been chiefly in paintings on baskets.
Decorative wood-carving upon household utensils and sometimes upon
implements was also quite common. Bead-work, on the other hand, appears
to have been a secondary activity. A short account of the basket-making
itself is required, before the basket decorations are described.
For household and gardening purposes these people have developed a
few types of baskets (_manu·´da_[3] “receptacle”) varying in shape,
size, and weave. The most characteristic forms seem to have been
rectangular baskets a foot or so in length, two-thirds as high, and of
proportionate width, and without handles, though often provided with
covers. These are the household storage articles (Plates I and II). For
carrying garden products, and for hand use in general, are somewhat
smaller round-bottomed baskets, with handles or bails, ranging in width
from 4 inches up to baskets with a capacity of half a bushel (Plates
III and V). Then we have the type known, among the Indians from Nova
Scotia to the Southern States, as “melon”, “rib”, or “gizzard” baskets
(Plate III, upper right hand corner), provided with bails, and also
used for carrying. And, lastly, there are the open work baskets, some
of which are small fancy articles, while others are used as strainers
(Plates IV and VI). These fall under the general type of open hexagonal
twill baskets. All these types, of course, are commonly found among
practically all the tribes of the Atlantic coast, varying only in the
minor details of weave at the rim and the bottom.
As to the materials, the Mohegan and Niantic, like the northern New
England tribes, used prepared splints of the brown ash. Next in
importance is the white oak. Here the pounding is unnecessary, the
splints being more easily freed from the log. Swamp maple is also
commonly used by the Mohegan basket-makers, although it is not as
durable as either the oak or the ash.
All these materials go through the same processes of preparation before
the splints are ready to be woven. The first stage in the process
consisted in pounding the ash log all over, and then separating the
layers of wood. Next, the lengths of splints were shaved smooth with a
spoke-shave, which looks like a European tool. Hand gauges were then
used to cut the splints into strips of uniform width. These gauges
(Figure 1), not unlike those of the Penobscots, were provided with
teeth made, in recent days, of clock springs; the width of the splint
depending upon the distance at which the teeth were set in the end
of the gauge. Another small implement, a sort of hand planer through
which the splint was drawn to make it finer, was also obtained at the
Mohegan village (Figure 2). The knives of the crooked type,
_bən·ī·´dwaŋg_ (Figure 3), used by the Mohegans for woodworking in
general, have a very pronounced curve, and are usually mounted on
wooden or sometimes buckhorn handles. While not necessarily used
directly in basket making, these knives are indispensable to the
Indian workman. A very old bone pointed tool, probably a punch (Figure
4), seems to have been used in some way, perhaps in weaving the basket
rims.
The ordinary weave among these tribes is the common checker-work.
The basket bottoms are of two kinds, rectangular and round. In the
rectangular bottoms the checker-work forms a foundation, the same
process continuing up the sides. In the round-bottomed forms the
splints are arranged like the spokes of a wheel crossing and radiating
from a centre. These splints turn upwards around the bottom, and
form the standards around which the side filling is woven, in the
under-one-over-one-process. Among the Mohegans a certain feature of
the round-bottomed types occurs which has not yet been found in other
tribes making similar baskets; that is, the broad flattened centre
standards of the bottom, appearing in Plate III, figure b. The ordinary
New England oak or maple hoops, one inside and the other outside, bound
down by a splint in the ordinary manner of wrapping, constitute the
rims of all the baskets. The second type of round baskets is called
“gizzard” basket by the Mohegans (Plate III, upper right hand corner).
These are generally made of oak, and their weave, although shown
plainly in the illustration, is almost impossible to describe.
The decorations upon baskets are produced in two ways, either by
running variously coloured splints into the weaving as fillers round
the sides, or by painting with pigment upon broad splints various
patterns extremely free in outline and quite independent of the
technique. It is with such painted designs that we have chiefly to
deal, because they perpetuate the native decorative art of these
Indians. The colours appearing upon the baskets are red (_skwa´yo_),
black (_sug·a´yo_), and indigo (_zi·wamba´yo_), the commonest being
red and black. The red is obtained by boiling down cranberries. The
black dye has now been forgotten, although some think that it was
either ‘snakeberries’ (or ‘poke-berries,’ termed _skuk_), or perhaps
huckleberries. In later times they have used either water colours or
blueing. The colours were applied by means of crude brushes, made by
fraying the end of a splinter of wood, or by using a stamp cut from a
potato, which is dipped into the colouring matter and then stamped on
the splints.
The designs themselves in the field of basketry decoration are
pre-eminently floral, the figures being highly conventionalized. The
main parts of the blossom are pictured. The corolla of the flower forms
the centre, surrounded by four petals, and commonly augmented by four
corner sprays apparently representing the calyx from underneath brought
into view. There is a fundamental similarity in these pseudo-realistic
representations occurring on all the different baskets, which shows
that this was the prevailing motive in this kind of decoration. The
corolla usually occupies the exposed surface of one splint, and the
four petals occupy the surrounding ones, as is shown in the natural
size illustration (Figure 5). The colours in this specimen are limited
to blue and red. Cynthia Fowler, a Mohegan informant, named the flower
the “blue gentian”; but how generally this name was used in former
times it is impossible to say. These flowers are usually found enclosed
within a larger diamond-shaped space, on one side of the basket,
the enclosing border consisting of a straight line or chain-like
line edged by dots. These dotted borders and the flower elements are
very characteristic of Mohegan and Niantic work. The corners of the
baskets from top to bottom also constitute another favourite field of
ornamentation. Here vertical alternating chain-like curves of several
types appear. Examples of the available designs of both sorts are shown
in Figures 6 to 14. The solid black in the sketches represents either
black or dark indigo of the actual design; the lined spaces represent
red.
Turning to the design reproductions (Figures 6, 7, 8, 9), we observe
a most consistent similarity in all those of the rosette type, to
wit, the conventional centre, the radiating petals, and the enclosing
diamond or four-curve, recurring with modifications in practically all
of such designs. Some are very handsome, a few rather colourless. The
dotting is very distinctive. Next are the line or border patterns,
which, although adapted to linear spaces, are characterized, like the
rosettes, by intertwined lines, dots, and petals. Frequently different
rosettes appear on each of the four sides of the same basket; and the
sides are also occasionally quartered diagonally by one of the border
or line patterns, and are thus divided into triangular areas, each
containing a rosette. Unfortunately none of the painted figures show in
the photographs, on account of their having become quite faint through
age and wear.[4]
In this whole series of conventional painted patterns a general
resemblance to northeastern Algonkin designs, as far north as the
Naskapi of Labrador, is very noticeable. It is, moreover, quite likely
that similar designs among the Narragansetts were referred to by Roger
Williams when he wrote, “They also commonly paint these (skin garments,
etc.) with varieties of formes and colours.”[5]
A further extension of the ubiquitous splint basketry of the New
England tribes, and the decorative work connected therewith, is
furnished by another Connecticut tribe--the Scatticook, of the
Housatonic river, near Kent. Their art is especially interesting,
because it has also just become extinct among their descendants here.
As a tribe the Scatticook (_Pisga´‛tiguk_, ‘At the fork of the river’)
were composed of exiled Pequots, Mohegans, and the remnants of western
Connecticut tribes who formed a new unit in their new home.[6] Their
type of culture was accordingly intermediate in some respects between
the eastern Connecticut tribes and those of the Hudson river.
To judge from a vocabulary which I obtained at Scatticook about ten
years ago, they had closer linguistic affinities with the Hudson River
(Delaware) group.
Until ten years ago the native art of basketry was preserved by the
Scatticooks, and some specimens were then collected during several
visits. It was found recently, in another visit to the tribe, that the
industry had become extinct; so our remarks are now based upon old
specimens and implements in the possession of the Indians. The general
character of Scatticook work is the same as that of the Mohegans.
Instead of the maple, however, the Scatticook used white oak or brown
ash. The method of preparing the splints was the same, as was also
the case with the types of weaving (Plate VIII). In the round-bottom
forms we notice the same flat radiating splints cut narrow at the
edge, as figured before in dealing with Mohegan work. The Scatticook
baskets are, as a whole, quite finely constructed of very thin
splints. One somewhat distinctive feature is found here, namely, the
very frequent use of the curlicue or roll as an ornamental feature.
The curlicue consists of a splint run over one of the warp splints
and twisted between two alternate standards, thus making a sort of
twisted imbrication. The Scatticook, considering the embellishment as
representing a shell, call it “a shell”; and they term the baskets with
this feature “shell-baskets” (Figures 15, 16, 17).
Three modifications of this ornamentation are shown in Figures 15, 16,
a and b; in Figure 16, a, the splint is twisted alternately between two
rows of warp at a different level; in Figure 15, the splint is curled
twice in a different direction, and forms a point; in Figure 16, b,
the splint is twisted once between two parallel rows of warp. This is
claimed by the Indians to be a native feature; and, since it is found
in the oldest baskets from the region, there seems little doubt that it
is aboriginal.
The Scatticook seem to have employed almost exclusively pokeberry juice
to stain the basket splints dark blue. In none of the specimens made
in recent times do we find the painting upon the splints, as is the
case among the Mohegans. The only record of this kind of work from the
Scatticook is found in an article by W. S. Curtis,[7] describing a
collection of old baskets obtained many years ago.
The gauges made by these people are somewhat distinctive (Figures
18 _a_ and _b_, and 19). One of their characteristics is that the
decorations are largely functional, the object in the maker’s mind
evidently having been to provide a firm grip for the operator and
at the same time to produce a decorative effect. This interesting
feature is noticeable in the few specimens that were discovered on the
reservation, and in several others in the possession of collectors.
They are all highly prized by their possessors. In one case there
seems to have been an attempt to portray a fish on the handle. Another
instrument, a knife used in shaving the splints, is shown in Figure 20.
While we may assume that some influence upon the art of the Connecticut
Indians resulted from contact with the Iroquois, there is nothing to
show that the former had such symbolic associations in their designs
as did the Iroquois.[8] The general similarity of the Connecticut
Indian decorations to those of both the Iroquois and the northeastern
Algonkins is really too ambiguous to permit a final decision as to
their affinities. Aware of these uncertainties, I feel, however, that
the evidence sustains the conclusion that the stamped and painted
designs are original to the southern New England Indians, and that they
spread from them to the Iroquois.
The occurrence of identical types of splint basketry and similar potato
stamp decorations among the Oneida (Plate IX) and Onondaga,[9] might
lead to the impression, were we to overlook resemblances with northern
Algonkin designs, of an Iroquoian origin for the whole technique. In
a recent visit, however, to the Cherokee of North Carolina, for the
purpose of tracing relationships between northern and southern art
motives, nothing was discovered comparable to these northern types
either in design or technique, although the eastern Cherokee are quite
conservative. This naturally leaves the art of the southern New England
tribes to be tentatively classified as a somewhat distinctive branch of
the northern and eastern Algonkin field, with some outside affinities.
From information and sketches furnished by Dr. J. Alden Mason, based on
studies and photographs which he made of New England baskets in the
C. P. Wilcomb collection, Oakland, Cal., it seems that similar stamped
splint baskets were found among the Indians as far as the Merrimac
River valley in southeastern New Hampshire. Specimens in the collection
referred to are supposed to have come from Union, Me., Lenox, Mass.,
Ipswich, Mass., and Herkimer, N.H. While not numerous enough to permit
of discussion, the specimens from this eastern extension of the stamped
or painted basket area show a type of design different from that of
our southern New England tribes. The patterns are less elaborate.
Although it is difficult to account for it, they seem to bear closer
resemblances to the designs on Oneida baskets.
North of the southern New England culture sub-area, which appears to
have terminated at the Merrimac river, splint basketry and painted
designs were replaced by the birch bark basketry and etched designs
characteristic of the art of the Wabanaki group.
A few examples of Mohegan and Niantic beadwork have survived the decay
of Indian culture in New England. These miscellaneous articles are
shown in Plates X and XI. They include moccasins, bags, and portions
of costume. Whether they have all been actually made by Mohegans is
not certain, except where indicated. One peculiarity of Mohegan art is
beadwork upon birch bark. A couple of very old specimens (Figure 21) of
this work have come to light. The foundation is the thin bark of the
white birch. The beadwork figures are practically all floral, though a
few geometrical designs occur; and realism appears as in the butterfly
representation. The floral designs seem to be somewhat related to those
found in the basket paintings, although they are not so aboriginal in
appearance. The beadwork designs are generally termed “forget-me-nots,”
“daisies,” “yellow daisies,” with buds, leaves, and stems. It should be
noted in this connexion that from the earliest time the Mohegans have
had some contact with Iroquois, especially the Mohawks, who from time
to time visited the Connecticut Indians in small parties. During the
early nineteenth century a number of the latter joined the Iroquois,
with whom an intermittent relationship has since been maintained. It
may be said in general, however, that the same type of floral beadwork
extends throughout the whole northeastern and Great Lakes area, in
which the Mohegan work may be included. Almost identical bags, for
example, both in form and design, come from the Mohegan, Penobscot,
Malecite, Montagnais, and Ojibwa.
In the carving of wooden utensils, such as bowls, spoons, mortars, and
miscellaneous articles, the Mohegans have shown considerable skill,
as appears from what few articles have survived among them. Some of
their bowls made from maple burls are exquisite. Several of these have
been described and illustrated by Mr. Willoughby in a recent paper,
the originals being in the Slater Memorial Museum, of Norwich. Wolf or
dog faces facing inward from projections upon the rim are very well
executed. Oftentimes such bowls were decorated by inserting wampum
beads into the wood, giving the outline and eateries of the face. These
bowls were used until a few generations ago for mixing native bread
known as johnny-cake.
Hardly inferior in workmanship to the bowls are the very distinctive
Mohegan mortars (_də´kwaŋg_, “pounder”) made
of a pepperidge log, and provided with long stone pestles (_gwu´nsnag_,
“long stone”). Three of these specimens, now in the Heye collection,
are shown in Plate XII. Practically all of the large mortars for
grinding corn in the household, among the Mohegans, were of this type.
Their sides were tapered toward the pedestal, and there were from two
to three handles on the sides near the bottom. Hollowed scallop work
ornamented the edge of the pedestal. The mortars average about 17
inches in height; and their cavity, narrowing towards the bottom, is
very deep. The stone pestle is 18 inches long. Until lately a few of
these heirlooms were cherished in several Mohegan families.
The use of wooden spoons and ladles (_giya´mən_) has not
been entirely abandoned by these Indians. The designs of most of the
forms are considered as aboriginal. They have rather broad oval--or
sometimes even circular--bowls, sometimes flat-bottomed bowls; and
the handles are of varying lengths, with rounded projections in the
under side to prevent the ladle from sliding down into the pot. This
favourite semi-decorative and functional feature also occurs in the
handles of gauges (Figure 1). The spoons are usually made of birch or
maple. One or two ornamentally carved specimens were found. One with a
dog’s head at the end of the handle, and the bowl set at an angle to
the handle, is in the Slater Museum. Another, recently obtained from
the Indians (Plate XIII), has two human faces, back to back, at the end
of the handle. The spoons range from 6 to 12 inches in length. Various
types are shown in Plate XIII.
Several articles of bone, ornamentally carved, have come to light.
Chief among these are whalebone canes, with skilfully made carvings.
The handle of one of these canes represents a very natural looking
human hand (Figure 22). This same figure has been met with in the
carvings of the Penobscot and Iroquois.
A few miscellaneous articles made by old Mohegan workmen have been
discovered during the investigation, one of which is covered with
decorative designs (Figure 23). No discussion is warranted, since any
possible interpretation has now been forgotten, even as to the function
of the object.
Strange as it may seem to find definitive material amid such
deculturated surroundings, there can be little doubt that these tribes
have preserved designs of considerable antiquity. Perhaps they belong
to an early type of eastern Algonkin art, consisting of curves,
circles, ovals, wavy lines and dottings forming floral complexes,
having a general distribution in the north and east, from which the
more elaborate realistic floral figures of beadwork have developed.
[Figure 1. Mohegan basket gauge.]
[Figure 2. Mohegan hand splint planer.]
[Figure 3. Mohegan crooked knives, with wood and antler handles.]
[Figure 4. Bone punch.]
[Figure 5. Typical basketry design of the Mohegans.]
[Figure 6. Mohegan and Niantic painted designs.
c, f, from specimen _b_, Pl. IV, Niantic.
a, d, from specimen _a_, Pl. III, Mohegan.
b, e, from specimen _b_, Pl. I, Mohegan.]
[Figure 7. Mohegan and Niantic painted designs.
a, from specimen _a_, Pl. III, Mohegan.
b, from specimen _b_, Pl. IV, Niantic.
c, e, from specimen _b_, Pl. I, Mohegan.
d, from specimen _a_, Pl. I, Mohegan.
f, from specimen _c_, Pl. II, Mohegan.]
[Figure 8. Mohegan and Niantic painted designs.
a, c, d, e, f, from specimen _b_, Pl. IV, Niantic.
b, from specimen _a_, Pl. III, Mohegan.]
[Figure 9. Mohegan painted designs.
a, c, from specimen _a_, Pl. III, Mohegan.
b, Mohegan.]
[Figure 10. Mohegan, Niantic, and Scatticook painted designs.
a, b, from specimen _a_, Pl. III, Mohegan.
c, e, f, g, h, i, k, from specimen _b_, Pl. IV, Niantic.
d, from specimen _a_, Pl. II, Mohegan.
j, from specimen _c_, Pl. II, Mohegan.
l, from Curtis, Scatticook.]
[Figure 11. Mohegan and Niantic painted designs.
a, from specimen _b_, Pl. I, Mohegan.
b, c, d, e, f, from specimen _b_, Pl. IV, Niantic.]
[Figure 12. Mohegan, Scatticook, and Niantic painted designs.
a, c, from specimen (Mohegan).
b, from specimen _a_, Pl. III, Mohegan.
d, f, from Curtis (Scatticook).
e, from specimen _b_, Pl. IV, Niantic.]
[Figure 13. Linear border designs from Mohegan painted baskets.]
[Figure 14. Body designs from Mohegan painted baskets;
_a_, on the top of the basket; _b_ on the sides.]
[Figure 15. The curlicue or roll, in Scatticook baskets.]
[Figure 16. The curlicue or roll, in Scatticook baskets.]
[Figure 17. Bottom of Scatticook basket, showing trimming of radial
splints.]
[Figure 18 (a). Scatticook gauge.]
[Figure 18 (b). Scatticook gauge.]
[Figure 19. Scatticook gauges.]
[Figure 20. Scatticook splint planer.]
[Figure 21. Mohegan beadwork on birch bark.]
[Figure 22. Carved bone hand.]
[Figure 23. Decorated Mohegan wooden object.]
/Explanation of Plate I./
Mohegan baskets (_a_ and _b_ painted.)
[/Plate I./]
/Explanation of Plate II./
Mohegan baskets (_a_, _b_, and _c_ painted.)
[/Plate II./]
/Explanation of Plate III./
Mohegan baskets.
a--Painted.
b--Shows bottom construction.
[/Plate III./]
/Explanation of Plate IV./
Niantic and Mohegan baskets.
a--Mohegan washing basket.
b--Niantic storage basket made about 1840 by Mrs. Mathews at Black
Point (near Lyme, Conn.)
[/Plate IV./]
/Explanation of Plate V./
Mohegan carrying baskets.
[/Plate V./]
/Explanation of Plate VI./
Mohegan baskets, fancy work baskets, and wall pocket.
[/Plate VI./]
/Explanation of Plate VII./
Tunxis baskets. Made by Pually Mossuck, a Tunxis woman from Farmington,
Conn., who died about 1890 at Mohegan. Lower left hand basket slightly
painted.
[/Plate VII./]
/Explanation of Plate VIII./
Scatticook baskets, made by Rachel Mawee, Abigail Mawee, and Viney
Carter, who died at Kent, Conn., about 1895.
[/Plate VIII./]
/Explanation of Plate IX./
Oneida stamped basket (Heye collection.)
[/Plate IX./]
/Explanation of Plate X./
Mohegan and Niantic moccasins.
a--Mohegan moccasins.
b--Niantic moccasins from the old reservation at Black Point, near
Lyme, Conn.
[/Plate X./]
/Explanation of Plate XI./
Mohegan and Niantic beaded bags (3 from the Heye collection.)
[/Plate XI./]
/Explanation of Plate XII./
Mohegan corn mortars and stone pestle.
[/Plate XII./]
/Explanation of Plate XIII./
Mohegan ladles and spoons.
[/Plate XIII./]