cross
date: label: Date made
content: mid 18th century
notes: label: Description
content: 18th century trade silver cross, probably brought by French Catholic brothers from France and given to Iroquois in Canada. Mohawks and other mostly Iroquoian natives later became silversmiths and made silver objects for Native use, though they often included designs originally brought by Europeans to use in trade with them. This particular cross, a Lorraine or Patriarchal double barred (as opposed to the Latin single-barred or the Papal triple-barred) was among the most common of the crosses introduced by missionaries to the Indians. They usually gave brass or copper crosses to converts rather than the rarer, more expensive silver, but silverwork took on a high status and was given or traded in relationships of some significance. Many crosses were later distributed during the fur trade where their metal (silver) was of more significance than their religious meaning, and the huge business in trade silver in the eighteenth century belonged to the fur trade. Still, ecclesiastical silver certainly played a large part in the relationships, economic, political and social, between Indians and whites.
label: Description
content: Silverwork was probably originally introduced as diplomatic gifts from Europeans (French and British) to Indians. The Peace Medals issued by heads of European States and later, Presidents and their representatives to Native North America, and the silver gorgets given to Indian political and military leaders by their European equivalents were the most important gifts. But traders and military men trafficked in thousands of ordinary silver pieces which were worn as ornaments and traded as currency for other goods.
label: Description
content: The significance of metalwork in the fur trade, however, also developed an entire new craft and material culture among the Native peoples of the New World .later to blossom in the American Southwest among Navajo and Pueblo peoples as part of the new economy, but also as part of a Native aesthetic brought to bear on a once imported craft.
place: label: place made
content: Canada
setName: label: See more items in
content: Home and Community Life: Domestic Life
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 2004.0182.04
label: catalog number
content: 2004.0182.04
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Cross
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: metal, silver (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: cross: 10.9 cm x 6 cm; 4 5/16 in x 2 3/8 in