Indian trade silver as inter-cultural document in the northeast

Abstract

Indian trade silver in the northeast served as a cultural marker for both Euroamerican and Native populations. The metal held different, positive meanings to these groups, and was a logical outgrowth of earlier trade in copper objects. Trade silver and its motifs can be read as inter-cultural documents, illuminating the degrees to which Native Americans were active participants in its manufacture. A group of early nineteenth-century brooches, cuffs, and tall hat bands, or “crowns” with Maine provenance bear motifs that were more commonly executed in Native-crafted media, such as birchbark containers, beadwork and wood carving. This trade silver was, for the most part, made by Euro-Canadian smiths and may be a product of diplomatic exchange within the inter-tribal Wabanaki Confederacy. The conjunction of Native symbols and Euroamerican silver forms transformed trade silver, a product of many cultures, into a wholly Native American object.