Economic Struggle through Traditional Quill Box Making
With the onset of white settlement into the Americas came many white ideals that were forced on the people who already lived here: concepts of perfectibility, race, politics, and economy, for example. Tribes, like the Ojibwa and many other Great Lakes Region tribes, entered the fur trade with the white settlers. This changed the economy for the tribes, as well as the role of Anishinaabe women.
"Old" Economy of Subsistence:
- gathered berries and nuts
- childcare, marriage
- make birch-bark containers for own use
"New" Economy of Trade:
- acquired cloth, needles, scissors, beads
- casinos and resorts needing managing and upkeep
- porcupine quill boxes became a commodity
Notice how after the introduction of the fur trade into Indigenous communities, women acquired things that we normally associate with traditional female gender roles even to this day.
This tourist economy provoked the sale of quill boxes not unlike the one pictured to the left. This "quill box house purse" was made by Daffney Donshee from a design by Louise Kenoshmeg in 1925 that was actually copied from a design circa 1900. It was not uncommon for many quill designs to be passed down as a way to acknowledge the "teacher" of the woman designing it. Also, it is traditionally women who make these crafts, so the economic shift of gatherer to trader created a laborforce and outlet for many women experiencing the change in lifestyle that came about with white settlement.
Many of these quill boxes were purchased between $3.00 and $5.00, providing some relief for Ojibwas during the Depression (Littlefield, 2012). World War II surfaced the "workability" of Indigenous people, many of them finding work in factories, as a formal introduction into the white capitalist economy (Littlefield, 2012). Traditional quillwork had been lost in favor to a paycheck. The subsistence economy that was traditional to Ojibwa tribes had been replaced with wage labor, urbanizing most of the community and providing a different role for Ojibwa women.
Citations
Alice Littlefield. "Chapter 2: Making a Living: Anishinaabe Women in Michigan's Changing Economy" in Carol Williams. Indigenous Women and Work: From Labor to Activism. Urbana, Chicago, and Springfield: University of Illinois Press, 2012.