The Homelands, Haudenosaunee Women’s Blanket

2024

On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 744

This hand-embroidered, hand-sewn Haudenosaunee Women’s Wearing Blanket features iconography and symbols interpreting the history and original territories of the Haudenosaunee peoples. Raised beadwork designs of figures and sky domes reflect Haudenosaunee oral histories, wampum, creation stories, and cosmologies. Muslin treaty, or annuity cloth, references the Canandaigua Treaty of 1794, whereby the US Treasury annually provided bolts of muslin cloth to the Six Nations, thereby asserting their sovereignty. This agreement is upheld to this day. At center, a map depicts the communities and villages destroyed during George Washington’s 1779 military campaign, known as the "Sullivan Expedition," named after General John Sullivan. The embroidery, at bottom, quotes Washington’s intentionally destructive military strategies against the Haudenosaunee.

Artwork Details

Object Information

Overview

Provenance

Title: The Homelands, Haudenosaunee Women’s Blanket
Artist: Carla Hemlock (Kahnawake, Mohawk Nation)
Date: 2024
Medium: Wool, Shell, Glass Beads, Cork Cloth, Treaty Cloth (Wool), Silver Sequins
Dimensions: Larger section: 60 × 84 in. (152.4 × 213.4 cm)
Quote/bottom section: 31 × 40 in. (78.7 × 101.6 cm)
Weight: 10 lb. (4535.97g)
Credit Line: Purchase, 2024 Benefit Fund, 2024
Object Number: 2024.574
Curatorial Department: The American Wing

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