String of beads
Tahltan
Dene (Athabascan)
First Nation
Subarctic
collected late 1920s-1945
Dentalium, glass beads, and cotton twine
Overall: 13 3/4 in. (35 cm)
Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth: Gift of Doris Meltzer
166.56.24808
Geography
Place Made: Telegraph Creek, Stikine River, Canada, North America
Period
20th century
Object Name
Personal Adornment
Research Area
Native American
Native American: Subarctic
On view
Label
Artists from different nations and backgrounds made the small boats and other artworks in this case. Before cars, trains, and planes, boats connected the world. These objects reflect the global movement of peoples and trade between Indigenous and Colonial nations.
White protestant and catholic missionaries sailed around the globe attempting to convert Indigenous peoples to western religions. The upright (and uptight) missionary figures appear stiff and unmoving, perhaps reflecting the maker’s opinion that colonizing missionaries failed to fully appreciate the complexity of Haida culture.
The necklaces are made from dentalium, a narrow white seashell harvested by Indigenous peoples along the western coast of North America. Indigenous Americans traded dentalium across the continent, exchanging it for turquoise from the Southwest or dyes and hides from other regions. Dentalium’s movement reflects a history of complex international trade between Indigenous Nations that predates the arrival of European colonizers.
From the 2023 exhibition Liquidity: Art, Commodities, and Water, curated by Michael Hartman, Jonathan Little Cohen Associate Curator of American Art
Course History
First Year Student Enrichment Program - Cultures, Identities and Belongings, Francine A'Ness, Summer 2023
Exhibition History
Liquidity: Art, Commodities, and Water, Israel Sack Gallery and the Rush Family Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, July 29, 2023-June 16, 2024.
Provenance
[Possibly collected by Axel Rasmussen (about 1887-1945), possibly 1920-30's; Earl L. Stendahl (1887-1966), Los Angeles California]; Doris Meltzer (1980-1977), Meltzer Gallery, New York; given to present collection, 1966.
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