IDENTITY AND ATTRIBUTION
Identifying the
names or even tribal affiliations of the weavers who made the bags included in
this exhibition is often very difficult. In
some cases, such as bags that have been passed down as family heirlooms or bags
that have been woven more recently and collected directly from their makers, the
names of the artists are known. More
frequently, however, the bags are encountered long after they have left the
hands of their creators. Because
bags like these often circulate quite widely as gifts and trade items, the
details of their origins can quickly become obscured.
Although its is sometimes thought that certain design features can help
to identify a bag (for example, Nez Perce bags are often said to feature
“up-down” designs whereas Yakama bags are supposed to favor “pointy”
motifs like mountains and arrows), in reality it appears that most Plateau
weavers have always drawn from a common design vocabulary.
Consequently, bags with an established provenance (like the Oberlin bag)
are extremely important for establishing the historical evolution of the genre
as a whole.