  About the Artwork
  
  
  This basket-shaped hat by artist Kelly Church takes as its subject the nineteenth-century treaty negotiations of her Anishinaabe ancestors. The birch bark circles that dot the hat’s crown refer to the six treaties the Anishinaabe entered into with the United States and the state of Michigan. Through them, Anishinaabe leaders protected their sovereignty and natural resources as the newly formed United States violently pushed westward. But, in exchange, they were forced to give up millions of acres of land, partially represented by the rolled map at top. Thanks to her ancestors’ hard-won negotiations, Church can harvest each material used here, black ash, maple sugar, wild rice, etc. Taken as a whole, Treaty Hat is a testament to enduring Anishinaabe traditions tied to land in Michigan.
  
  
  Title
  Anishnabe Treaty Hat - Michigan Treaties
  
  
  Artwork Date
  2017
  
  Artist
  Kelly Church
  
  
  
  Life Dates
  born 1967
  
  
  
  
  Nationality
  
  
  
  Please note:
  Definitions for nationality may vary significantly, depending on chronology and world events.
  Some definitions include:
  Belonging to a people having a common origin based on a geography and/or descent and/or tradition and/or culture and/or religion and/or language, or sharing membership in a legally defined nation.
  
  
  
  Match-E-Be-Nash-She-Wish Band of Pottawatomi
  
  
  
  Culture
  
  
  
  Please note:
  Cultures may be defined by the language, customs, religious beliefs, social norms, and material traits of a group.
  
  
  
  
  Potawatomi; ottawa
  
  
  Medium
  Black ash, sweetgrass, white cedar bark, birch bark, wild rice, maple sugar, water, black ash seed, tobacco, buckskin, copper
  
  
  Dimensions
  Overall: 7 3/4 × 8 × 7 1/4 inches (19.7 × 20.3 × 18.4 cm)
  
  
  Classification
  Baskets
  
  
  Department
  Indigenous Americas
  
  
  Credit
  Gift of Ellen Taubman in honor of William Taubman
  
  
  
  Accession Number
  
  
  
  This unique number is assigned to an individual artwork as part of the cataloguing process at the time of entry into the permanent collection.
  Most frequently, accession numbers begin with the year in which the artwork entered the museum’s holdings.
  For example, 2008.3 refers to the year of acquisition and notes that it was the 3rd of that year. The DIA has a few additional systems—no longer assigned—that identify specific donors or museum patronage groups.
  
  
  
  2019.156
  
  
  Copyright
  Non-commercial all standard museum
