392 



USES OF PLANTS BY THE CHIPPEWA INDIANS [eth. ann. 44 



gesting patterns for woven beadwork. In this phase the indenta- 

 tions were of varying sorts, producing an agreeable art object. 

 The patterns that appear in such transparencies are geometrical 

 and conventional, but include life forms and some representations 

 of tipis and houses. Such are the " pictures " that were admired, 

 kept, or exchanged among members of the tribe. Those intended 

 as suggestions for patterns in woven beadwork were purposely 

 adapted for their special use as knee bands, headbands, etc. The 

 second branch of the art is clearly related to the period in which 

 the delicacy of the old perception was passing away. (See p. 395.) 

 Thicker bark was used, the outline of a leaf or flower was sharply 

 indented and the pattern cut out, after which it was fastened to 

 cloth and outlined in beads. Mrs. Julia Warren Spears, 89 years 

 of age, said that she saw the Chippewa girls using these patterns 

 for beadwork when she was matron of the school at Leech Lake, 

 about the year 18G5. At that period the present floral patterns 

 were either coming into use or were at a height of popularity, and 

 the rather clumsy patterns made of bitten bark may in part account 

 for the lack of artistic value in these patterns. Mrs. Spears said 

 that they " took a leaf or flower to go by " when biting the pattern, 

 which marks it clearly as belonging to the imitative, not the inter- 

 pretative, period of culture. The influence of Government schools 

 had taken the place of that admiration of nature and appreciation 

 of its mysteries which underlies all effort at interpretation. The 

 Chippewa were being taught to become copyists, and the essentials 

 of art were lost forever. 



Only two mentions of this art have been found in writings on the 

 subject. The earliest refers to the old form and the later to the 

 modern appl cation of the art. Schoolcraft states that " amongst 

 the Ch.ppewas of Lake Superior there exists a very ingenious art of 

 dental pictography, or a mode of biting figures on the soft and fine 

 inner layers of the bark of the betula papyracea, specimens of which 

 are herewith exhibited. This pretty art appears to be confined 

 chiefly to young females. The designs presented are imitations of 

 flowers, fancy baskets, and human figures. There are so many abate- 

 ments to the amenities of social life in the forest that it is pleasing 

 to detect the first dawnmgs of the imitative and aesthetic arts." 15 

 This paragraph is accompanied by an illustration " from the origi- 

 nals," with the title " Chippewa toothwork, dental pictorial figures on 

 the inner bark of the Betula papyracea." The reproduction by 

 drawing and engraving does not represent the method with any de- 

 gree of accuracy, but the work itself is clearly the same as that de- 

 scribed to the writer and illustrated in Plates 58-63. 



15 Schoolcraft. Henry Rowe. History of the Indian Tribes in the United States, vol. 6. 

 p. G31. Philadelphia, 1857. 



