Frank G. Speck

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ XLII, No. 174 (1903) , by J. D. Prince and F. G. Speck; also De Forest, History of the Indians of Connecticut.
[7] ‘Basketry of the Scatticooks and Potatucks,’ Southern Workman, vol. XXXIII, No. 7, 1904, pp. 383–390.
[8] Cf. A. C. Parker, American Anthropologist, N.S., vol. 14, No. 4, 1912, pp. 608–620.
[9] Specimens in the collection of the American Museum of Natural History, New York City. I also learned of the same decorations among the Iroquois at Oshweken, Ontario, and the Mohawks of Deseronto.
Transcriber’s Note:
This e-text is based on the 1915 edition. ”