Margaret Boyd's Quillwork History

This article considers a presentation copy of the Odawa author Andrew Blackbird's History of the Ottawa and Chippewa Indians of Michigan, published in 1887. Margaret Boyd, Blackbird's sister, bound the copy in birch bark and embroidered it with dyed porcupine quills. The article argues that these embellishments can be read for how they preserve and extend Anishinaabe social and expressive practices, among them the role of women in the creation and maintenance of Anishinaabe histories. In so doing, the article models how the methods of Native American and Indigenous studies can be used to reconsider representations of Indigenous material culture in early American literature.