Cradle or Baby Carrier

Description

Many Plains peoples hold lavishly quilled or beaded cradles in high esteem—they bestow spiritual benefits on the infant and prestige and honor on the family and the maker, usually a female relative. Indeed, today and in the past, creating such a cradle is often regarded as equal to counting coup, the ultimate act of male bravery in which a warrior touches an enemy with a stick known as a coup stick. This cradle was held in the arms; others have wooden frames that can be propped against a support, such as a sofa or a tree, to ease the baby’s socialization into the community.

Provenance

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Cradle or Baby Carrier

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c. 1900

Accession Number

1984.1047

Medium

Native-tanned hide, cotton cloth, glass beads, metal beads, brass bell, sinew thread, cotton thread

Dimensions

Overall: 24.1 x 25.4 x 85.7 cm (9 1/2 x 10 x 33 3/4 in.)

Classification

Leather

Museum

The Cleveland Museum of Art

Cleveland, United States

Credit Line

Bequest of David S. McMillan