Man's coat

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This frock coat with a high collar and cape constitutes a hybrid of European style and indigenous imagery. Together, the female artist and the hunter who would wear this coat conceived the geometric, colorful design based on the man’s dreams of the motifs that would give him power and ensure his success in the hunt. Coats such as this example were worn for only one caribou hunting season, as the Naskapis (Innus) believed they lost their protective power over time.

The American Wing

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The American Wing's ever-evolving collection comprises some 20,000 works of art by African American, Euro American, Latin American, and Native American men and women. Ranging from the colonial to early-modern periods, the holdings include painting, sculpture, works on paper, and decorative arts—including furniture, textiles, ceramics, glass, silver, metalwork, jewelry, basketry, quill and bead embroidery—as well as historical interiors and architectural fragments.

Metropolitan Museum of Art