Uses of Birch Bark Container
The unique placement of the quillwork on the container indicates that it may have once been used to store the red clovers that its floral design suggests. Birch bark containers were used “long before the arrival of Europeans and even before the development of ceramic vessels,” so it is not unlikely that this object would have been used to store foods or medicinal herbs in Native American homes (Prindle, 1994). "Since we didn't have a written language, whatever was inside the box... the picture was put on top," explained renowned quillwork artist Yvonne Walker Keshick in a podcast interview. Even if this birch bark object was crafted in the post-colonial era, its intentionally-placed quillwork design suggests that pre-colonial Indigenous traditions are preserved through material culture as simple as storage containers.