Contemporary Makers: September 2024

Friday, September 13, 2024

Haversack by Ed Wilde

Photography by Jan Riser.

Historic Reproductions of native American Pouches by Wallace McElheney

I have been doing powder horns for about 25 years or so and have been a long-time member of the Horn Guild, as well as working and volunteering at Old Fort Niagara for the last sixteen years once I retired. I started doing leather work fifteen years ago to help support the ongoing need for new leather accoutrements at Fort Niagara. In addition, I was Fort Niagara's blacksmith for ten years and now interpret the Trade Room discussing all aspects of the French and British fur trade that went on at Fort Niagara and the Great lakers area in general.

About two years ago I became interested in creating reproductions of original Great Lakes area Native American beaded pouches. As a result of that interest, I had to initially learn how to weave traditional wampum belts. A good friend of mine, Rich Hamell was my go-to guy, as he is a Nationally known weaver of wampum belts. Rich taught me all the basics of weaving and coaxed me through all the times I screwed up! As a result, I reproduced a number of Great Lakes Native wampum belts before I attempted doing the larger wampum beaded panels for the pouches I had in mind.

All the pouches I create are copies of originals or inspired by original Native American pouches which reside in museums located in either the USA, Canada, or Europe. I have supplied the pertinent information with each of the pouch images.

Below is my reproduction of an original pouch created with seed beads made by an Ojibwa or one of the other Anishinaabe tribes of the Great Lakes area. The original pouch represents the Mishipeshu, or under water panther, which is a water spirit. I used German tanned leather for the pouch body, Czech glass seed beads, dyed cotton webbing, Russia sheeting for the lining, and tin deer hair cones. The strap is a typical Ojibwa pattern repeated the length of the strap.