This cradleboard QTVR had three hot spots in the front.

This cradleboard is made of birch bark. The design in the area where the baby’s head would be is a circle with star points. It is painted in the traditional four directional colors. The top of the cradleboard also has cowry shells and beaded cross.

The design in the body area also is a circle; it has been done with triangles or arrow points. They point both inward and outward. The two facing up and down also have smaller points, one right and one left. The colors are also the four directional colors.

The age of the cradleboard is unknown. It could be as old as the 1700’s yet or as new at the 1900’s. Even though cloth may have been available, the family may have chosen to use the old bark style.

The size of a cradleboard would depend on the age of the child. As the child grew, he/she would be placed into a larger cradleboard. Children up to the age of two were often placed in cradleboards for traveling.

There was not a lot of room for movement in the cradleboard. When the child was very little the hands were kept inside. As they grew, the hands would be taken out, but placed back inside for traveling.

by Kathy McNeely