February 4, 2022
Black Bear Pelt
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We started our Musings From Main this year, by featuring a fantastic addition to our museum collection – an A.H. Shipman Companion Scroll Saw. This week, we’re showcasing one of the many generous donations to our education collection supporting Nowashe Village – a rare Black Bear Pelt.
If you have artifacts or other cultural items relating to Eastern Woodland People’s history you would like to donate, please contact Education Director Liz Glaviano by email or at (860) 289-1783, ext. 4. This Musings From Main is another collaboration, with the majority of the research being done by The Friends' Education Director, Liz Glaviano. We hope you enjoy it!
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The pictured partial Black Bear pelt, with its front paws and claws intact, was donated this past fall by Jane Misiek. Jane has been a long-time supporter of the Friends of Wood Memorial Library & Museum and most recently, of Nowashe Village. |
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Food
According to William Wood, an observer of the Maine Coast in the 1620s in his book, New England’s Prospect, “the chief thing [Natives] hunt after are deer, mooses and bears.”
For numerous North American Tribal Nations, bears served as a major food source. Depending on the tribal culture, its meat was prepared in a variety of ways, including boiling, roasting and smoking. Bears also were prized for their secondary resources, including pelts, sinew, teeth and claws.
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Studio portrait of Gorgonia, a Native American (Mescalero Apache) Medicine Man, holding a bear pelt. Randall, A. Frank, 1883-1888 Image courtesy of Denver Public Library Special Collections |
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Clothing
Englishman Thomas Morton spent time in New England during the 1620s and 1630s, and described Indigenous clothing, “ Some of these skins they dress with the hair on, and some with the hair off: the hairy side in wintertime they wear next to their bodies, and in warm weather they wear the hair outwards … And mantles made of of bearskins are a usual wearing … among the Natives that live where the bears do haunt.” Pelts not only were used for clothing, but also used to make rugs, blankets and bedding. |
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Adornment and Tools
Bear teeth and claws were used by some cultures for adornment purposes – in necklaces and headdresses, while the bones were used by others to fashion tools, such as knives. Lastly, bear fat was used for a variety of purposes, such as an insect repellent, treatment for burns, a hair pomade, and to make soaps.
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| Images above of the Black Bear Pelt donated by Jane Misiek
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Thank You to Jane Misiek
for her Black Bear pelt donation. It’s a wonderful piece that will facilitate hands-on learning and exploration in Nowashe Village. The pelt will be on display in the Sachem’s House, beginning in June 2022. |
Sources used for this Musing are listed below.
Humphries, Murray M. and Kuhnlein, Hariett: Traditional Animal Foods of Indigenous People of Northern North America: The Contributions to Wildlife Diversity to the Subsistence and Tradition of Indigenous Culture, McGill University. http://traditionalanimalfoods.org/mammals/bears/
Lavin, Lucianne: Connecticut’s Indigenous Peoples: What Archaeology, History, and Oral Traditions Teach Us About Their Communities and Cultures © Yale University 2013. Riley, John L: The Once and Future Great Lakes, An Ecological History © 2013, McGill-Queen’s University Press. |
Please forward this email to anyone who might be interested. |
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