Haudenosaunee art includes beadwork, cornhusk dolls, black ash and sweetgrass basketry, and wampum, each carrying meaning beyond decoration. These art forms are made and taught within Haudenosaunee communities today, not only in the past.
The Haudenosaunee, or Iroquois, are a confederacy of six nations, including the Seneca and the Mohawk. This page looks at four art forms museums document closely: beadwork, cornhusk dolls, basketry, and wampum. For the confederacy itself, see our Haudenosaunee hub page.
What is raised beadwork?
Raised beadwork is a Haudenosaunee technique that stitches beads into lines that stand up from the fabric instead of lying flat. The style began in the early 1600s, when Haudenosaunee women adapted white glass trade beads on dark velvet to echo the look of European lace, a technique described by Two Row Times as “delicate white beads on dark rich velvet, stitched in raised lines” (Two Row Times). By the late 1800s, beadwork made and sold near tourist sites like Niagara Falls had become an important source of family income. The Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian has traced Iroquois beadwork “from pre-Contact times to the present” in a collection covering communities in New York, Quebec, and Ontario (Smithsonian NMAI).
This section covers the raised style specifically. It does not cover every regional beading tradition among the six nations, which vary in pattern and color.
What are cornhusk dolls?
Cornhusk dolls are traditional Haudenosaunee dolls made from the dried husks of corn, generally made without a face. The Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian includes the “no-face” cornhusk doll among the doll traditions it documents from Haudenosaunee communities (Smithsonian NMAI).
This section describes the doll form itself. The exact story behind why the dolls have no face is told differently by different Haudenosaunee communities and knowledge keepers, so this page does not retell one version as the only one.
What is Haudenosaunee basketry made from?
Haudenosaunee basketry is traditionally made from pounded black ash wood splints, often combined with sweetgrass for scent and decoration. The Seneca-Iroquois National Museum describes black ash splints, sometimes with wood handles, dyed splints, colored cords, porcupine quills, and sweetgrass, as the materials each Haudenosaunee nation uses in its own basket style, and it says basketmaking has been “passing knowledge and techniques on to their children and grandchildren” for generations (Seneca-Iroquois National Museum). Each Haudenosaunee nation has its own basketmaking style.
Black ash trees are now threatened by the emerald ash borer, an invasive beetle that has killed millions of ash trees across North America and now limits basket makers’ access to trees they can harvest, according to the Smithsonian’s American Indian magazine. This section covers black ash and sweetgrass basketry only. It does not cover other basket materials some communities have used historically.
What is wampum, and why does it matter beyond jewelry?
Wampum is cylindrical beads cut from shell, woven into belts that the Haudenosaunee have used to record agreements and carry diplomatic messages, not just as ornament. The National Museum of the American Indian’s guide for educators includes sections on the Two Row Wampum, a belt recording an agreement between the Haudenosaunee and European settlers, and the Hiawatha Belt, which is tied to the founding of the confederacy itself (Smithsonian NMAI, Haudenosaunee Guide for Educators).
This section covers wampum’s role in diplomacy and record-keeping. It does not cover every wampum belt held by Haudenosaunee nations or in museum collections, which is a much longer list.
Where can you see these art forms in person?
The Iroquois Indian Museum in Howes Cave, New York, is an educational institution built specifically around Haudenosaunee art as a way to understand Haudenosaunee culture, located on ancestral Mohawk territory (Iroquois Indian Museum). Museums are one way to see this work, but they are not the only one. Haudenosaunee artists sell and teach beadwork, basketry, and other art forms directly today.
This section names one museum with a specific focus on Haudenosaunee art. It does not cover every collection. The Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian and the New York State Museum also hold significant Haudenosaunee art collections.
Sources
- Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian. Across Borders: Beadwork in Iroquois Life
- Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian. Small Spirits: Dolls from the National Museum of the American Indian
- Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian. Haudenosaunee Guide for Educators
- Seneca-Iroquois National Museum. Collections
- Smithsonian American Indian magazine. A Silent Killer: Black Ash Basket Makers are Battling a Voracious Beetle
- Two Row Times. The History of Raised Iroquoian Beadwork
- Iroquois Indian Museum. Iroquois Indian Museum