wearing blanket, unrecorded Potawatomi artist

Among Sallie Casey Thayer’s collection of global textiles is this wearing blanket, an example of the ribbonwork tradition practiced by the Potawatomi peoples and other Native American communities living around the Great Lakes. Ribbonwork entails layering several strips of colored ribbon, often cut into intricate geometric or floral patterns, onto fabric to serve as a decorative border or trim. This practice was introduced in the late 1700s, when vibrant silk ribbons were exported from France to colonized North America. French fur trappers traded them with the Native peoples in the Great Lakes region.
Well-preserved ribbonwork from the late 19th and early 20th centuries is relatively rare in museum collections because of both the sharp decline in the practice by the early 1900s and the fragile nature of silk ribbons. This is one of the Spencer Museum’s few examples of this unique regional expression of Native aesthetics. By the 1970s, ribbonwork witnessed a resurgence, and once again decorates the regalia of powwow dancers from certain tribes.