Throughout North America, Native American infants would traditionally spend the first part of their lives in special cradleboards. While the actual construction and decoration of the cradleboards varied greatly by tribe, the purpose was to give the child a safe and secure place during the initial months of life. For the parents—keep in mind that the Indian concept of parent involved more than one mother and one father—the cradleboard allowed the child to be carried on the back, or in some areas, hung on a saddle horn; it allow the child to be propped up or hung in a tree to be near the people as they worked at their daily tasks. Among some tribes, the cradleboards would have a pointed base which allowed it to be stuck in the ground while the mother worked.
Cradleboards were often heavily decorated and were highly esteemed as family heirlooms. Non-Indian collectors have found it difficult to obtain cradleboards other than those made specifically for sale to non-Indians.
The decorations on the cradleboards served a number of functions. Some of them were intended to attract the attention of the infant, to arouse curiosity about the world. Some of the decorations displayed tribal, clan, or family affiliations. Some of the decorations were religious and provided the child with spiritual protection and guidance.
The sections below show cradleboards from several different North American culture areas.
California:
The California culture area was extremely diverse. With regard to language, it includes seven major language groups and more than 100 languages. Generally, babies were swaddled tightly into a basketry cradle shortly after birth. This not only provided the baby with some protection against poisonous insects and plants and dangerous animals such as rattlesnakes, but also resulted in relatively little crying or fussing. A child in this type of cradle began life by watching the world rather than acting upon it. Malcolm Margolin, in his book The Way We Lived: California Indian Reminiscences, Stories and Songs, suggests:
“Perhaps in the process the child developed an attitude of acceptance toward the world—an attitude that throughout a person’s life would be amplified by other cultural experiences, until in the end acceptance of the world would become the very center of a complex system of belief and value.”
Since babies usually grow, they would outgrow their cradles. Consequently, a child needed three or four cradles. Among the Wintu, a child’s first cradleboard would be crudely woven from skunkbush. The second cradleboard would be carefully made of hazel and would be blessed in a special ceremony. When a cradleboard was outgrown, it would be left in a tree until it disintegrated.
Among the Nisenan and the Yokuts, the child’s first cradle would be made of tule. This first cradle would be discarded after a week or two and the child placed in a regular cradleboard.
Among the Hupa, on the tenth day of life, the child would be wrapped in a soft deerskin and placed into a basketry cradle. Except for bathing and exercising, the baby would remain in the cradle until it had learned to walk.
The Karuk cradleboard shown above was woven using hazel shoots and beargrass about 1900. This cradle is on display at the Portland Art Museum.
Northern Plains:
The Northern Plains culture area includes what is now North and South Dakota, Eastern Montana, northeastern Wyoming, and the Canadian provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan. During the first few months, Indian babies among the Northern Plains tribes were kept in a cradle: a cushioned board decorated with buckskin flaps on both sides. During the winter months the cradle would often be hung on a tipi pole.
A Cheyenne cradle from about 1890 is shown above. This cradle is on display at the Portland Art Museum.
Southern Plains:
The Southern Plains culture area—or cultural sub-area— lies south of the Arkansas River valley. It includes Oklahoma, Arkansas, portions of Texas, the eastern foothills of New Mexico, and portions of Louisiana.
Shown above is a Kiowa or Comanche cradleboard from about 1890. This cradle is on display at the Portland Art Museum.
Northeastern Woodlands:
It was not uncommon for the cradleboards used by the Indian nations of the Northeastern Woodlands to be elaborately carved and painted.
Shown above is the carved back of an Iroquois cradleboard from 1830-1850. This cradle is on display at the Portland Art Museum.
Among the Chippewa, the cradleboard (dikinaagan) was made using a cedar board about two feet long and ten inches wide. A foot brace would be attached at one end and a hickory hoop, to protect the head, at the other end. The baby, on a bedding of sphagnum moss, would be wrapped in two layers of cloth or buckskin and fasted to the board. The outer layer would be carefully beaded by the mother, often with a floral design.
Plateau:
The area between the Cascade Mountains and the Rocky Mountains in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, British Columbia, and Western Montana is known as the Plateau Culture area. From north to south it runs from the Fraser River in the north to the Blue Mountains in the south. Much of the area is classified as semi-arid. Part of it is mountainous with pine forests in the higher elevations.
Culturally, the Plateau cultures are connected with both the Indian nations of the Pacific coast and those on the Northern Plains. Some cradles were made using twined basketry in the style of the coastal tribes, while other cradles closely resemble those used by the Plains tribes.
Shown above is an 1870 doll cradleboard from the Colville Reservation in Washington. This cradle is on display at the Portland Art Museum.
Shown above are Plateau cradleboards on display at the Travelers’ Rest State Park in Lolo, Montana.