This article from NYTimes.com has been sent to you by [log in to unmask] /-------------------- advertisement -----------------------\ Share the spirit with a gift from Starbucks. Our coffee brewers & espresso machines at special holiday prices. http://www.starbucks.com/shop/subcategory.asp?category_name=Sale/Clearance&ci=274&cookie_test=1 \----------------------------------------------------------/ How Iroquois Artists Turned Trespassers Into Tourists January 11, 2002 By GRACE GLUECK Faced with continuing loss of their lands and the decline of hunting and fishing in the 19th century, the Iroquois nations of New York State and Canada came up with a successful survival strategy: they would sell tourists the fancy beadwork they had long done for themselves. And so a flourishing cottage industry was born. Moccasins, bags, pincushions, needle cases, sport and smoking caps, picture frames, jewelry, match holders, clothing and hanging baskets were brilliantly stitched with tiny glass beads by women, using tribal themes but also adapting to the Victorian tastes of their buyers. They were sold - and still are - at Niagara Falls and other sites near Iroquois communities. But the show "Across Borders: Beadwork in Iroquois Life" at the George Gustav Heye Center of the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian lays to rest any idea that the tourist items were mostly made-for-the-trade tchotchkes. Done with a vital design sense and extraordinary handcraft, they are part of a long line of Iroquois beadwork that goes back hundreds of years to a time when beads made from shells and bird bones were used instead of the tiny glass cylinders first brought to North America by European explorers in the 16th century. The show presents more than 300 items from before European influence to the present. It was organized by the McCord Museum of Montreal and the Castellani Art Museum of Niagara University in collaboration with the Kanien'kehaka Raotitiohkwa Cultural Center, on the Kahnawake reservation in Canada; the Tuscarora Nation community beadworkers in New York State; and the Royal Ontario Museum of Toronto. Many of the items are from the 19th century, including a large selection of objects made for tourists. Background material includes a large wampum belt from the late 18th century woven of shell beads, one of many wampum "documents" used for record keeping in the absence of a written language; examples of trade silver ornaments made by Europeans as gifts for tribes in North America; and samples of early Venetian glass beads, dating from the 1580's to the 1630's. Records show that glass beads were first supplied to the Mohawks, one of the six Iroquois nations, as early as 1616, and by the 18th century commercial beads were in widespread use. Before that, quill work, using dyed porcupine quills, was a preferred form of decoration. But the stiffness of the quills made them more suitable for geometric design. Abundant plant life in the Iroquois regions suggested the use of curvy forms with leaf and floral patterns, and beads were more amenable to the working of these more delicate motifs. Significant tribal symbols relating to the Iroquois cosmology are also prevalent in the works. Among them is the Sky Dome, a half circle resting on two parallel lines, with a pair of simplified plant forms springing from the dome's top. The dome signifies the arc of the sky, the parallel lines the earth. The plant forms represent the celestial tree of life that stands at the center of the world, bearing the sun and the moon aloft in its branches. The symbol, enhanced by elaborate scrollwork, was often used to adorn women's leggings and more recently for the neckline of a knockout red velvet evening gown designed in 1997 by Tammy Beauvais, a Mohawk. It is heavily beaded with the Sky Dome motif in white, accented by double curves, another theme derived from the Iroquois world view. Tribal motifs also include the sun in stylized form, the celestial tree as a floral design enriched by fruits, the mythological turtle on which the earth was built and other animal clan figures. In earlier work the use of symbols was enhanced by striking patterns of white beads on the edges of garments like a handsome black Canadian waistcoat from the mid-19th century, whose front opening is edged in a lacy design of stylized flowers springing from tiny triangles with a row of beaded curves simulating scalloping along the bottom of the vest. But by then the Iroquois, tuning in to the larger world, were beginning to use a new style of embroidery more reflective of Victorian taste and combining their own symbols with European and North American elements. The beading became fuller and more florid, creating an embossed, bas- relief effect and often covering most of the background. A wider color range brought in more dark and medium tones. Examples abound in the form of pouches and purses (the Iroquois shared the Victorian love of bags), pincushions, caps and such made for tourists. In an apparent copying of European decorative art forms a Tuscarora beaded handbag, made between 1850 and 1910 and cut in a perky curvaceous shape, is covered with floral elements sophisticatedly worked in red, blue, white, yellow and other colors, the whole framed by a variety of neat white borders. Pincushions made to hold long hatpins and in smaller versions sewing needles were one of the most popular items sold by Iroquois beaders. Boot shapes in beads and fabric were an Iroquois specialty, and one 19th-century Mohawk beader, Mae Goodleaf, went so far as to make one in the form of a woman's leg. Another 19th-century Mohawk pincushion, maker unknown, occurs in the form of a six-pointed star embroidered in white beads with a black center containing a white eagle bearing an American flag on each wing. Headgear took the form of heavily beaded caps for sports, for smoking and for general use. Of the sports caps, reminiscent of the ubiquitous baseball toppers that men wear today except that they have shorter visors, two treasures are a jaunty number from between 1850 and 1910 heavily encrusted with gray floral beading on a dark gray ground and a small but sumptuous football cap worn by a McGill University player in the 1890's. The most popular hat made by Iroquois beaders was the glengarry, the snappy Scottish head warmer creased lengthwise across the top and often trimmed with short ribbons at the back. The heavily beaded versions in the show were probably derived from the military uniforms worn by some British regiments serving in Canada. Beads, of course, adorned all manner of Indian outfits, but a particularly fetching one is the deerskin ensemble worn by one of the best-known Mohawk entertainers, Princess White Deer, nee Esther Deer (1891- 1992). A member of a family enterprise, "The Famous Deer Brothers Champion Indian Trick Riders of the World," which performed across Europe and America in the early 1900's, she became an acclaimed singer and dancer in American vaudeville shows. Her playful costume, from about 1910 to 1920, consisted of a beaded deerskin bikini, a bra top, a headdress and boots with beaded cuffs. The beaded symbols include several swastikas, an ancient motif used by aboriginal artists and thought to represent the sun and the cycle of time, predating by millenniums the adoption of the sign by the Nazi Party. As a whole the outfit is strictly Mohawk-Hollywood. The exhibition contains many items recently made by Iroquois beaders who have revivified the art, although it must be admitted that this is the area where the kitsch really begins to creep in. Among their more exotic contributions are a group of Barbie dolls, adorned with feathers and beads by Noreen Reese of the Cayuga nation, a jeans jacket with a beaded Buffalo Bill football team medallion, made by Cheryl Greene of the Onandaga tribe, a marionette in a beaded outfit, made by Iris Stacey, a Mohawk, and a pair of beaded running shoes made by Loretta Jabokwoam of the Woodland Cultural Center in Brantford, Ontario. The show adds up to a resplendent eyeful and persuades the viewer that the beadwork was an important means of exchange between the Iroquois and their European- North American contacts. But one complaint: as usual, the museum has overdone the installation; in this case, by using aluminum poles to frame most of the exhibits. The attempt is to suggest the longhouse, the communal living quarters that traditionally housed Iroquois tribes. The poles not only fail to evoke the longhouse but also interfere with viewing. ``Across Borders: Beadwork in Iroquois Life'' remains at the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, George Gustav Heye Center, 1 Bowling Green, Lower Manhattan, (212)514-3700, through May 19. http://www.nytimes.com/2002/01/11/arts/design/11GLUE.html?ex=1011749277&ei=1&en=f8b393b405a5e88b HOW TO ADVERTISE --------------------------------- For information on advertising in e-mail newsletters or other creative advertising opportunities with The New York Times on the Web, please contact Alyson Racer at [log in to unmask] or visit our online media kit at http://www.nytimes.com/adinfo For general information about NYTimes.com, write to [log in to unmask] Copyright 2001 The New York Times Company ========================================================= Important Subscriber Information: The Museum-L FAQ file is located at http://www.finalchapter.com/museum-l-faq/ . You may obtain detailed information about the listserv commands by sending a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "help" (without the quotes). If you decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "Signoff Museum-L" (without the quotes).