Bowl

Nineteenth-century depictions of Native people by European colonizers have long obscured the cultural vibrancy of Indigenous artistic traditions, as exemplified by this delicately carved wood bowl adorned with two human faces in relief. A brass plate covering a large crack on one side shows that the owner repaired it, indicating that the bowl was a treasured item likely passed down from generation to generation. If it was collected in Fort Snelling, Minnesota, in the 1830s, it may have traveled with Lenape refugees fleeing north to Wisconsin or Ontario, Canada.