Broken Treaty Quilt #5, Gina Adams

For her Broken Treaty Quilts series, Gina Adams hand-cut letters from calico fabric and appliquéd them onto antique quilts. These works use language from treaties written by the United States government that were signed by Native American tribes. The intentionally vague treaties promised tribes peace, money, and sovereignty in exchange for their homelands. In most cases, the United States government willfully broke their promises to the Native peoples. Broken Treaty Quilt #5 encourages viewers to reflect on both the past betrayals and the continuing marginalization of Native Americans within the United States.

In her work, Adams draws from colonial history and the experiences of her Ojibwe grandfather, who was forced to attend the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Pennsylvania. Her series of antique, well-worn quilts, overlaid with text from treaties between the U.S. government and Native American tribes, reflect the layered and fractured relationship of European settlers and Indigenous peoples. The quilts juxtapose the idea of comfort and home with harsh treaty conditions that forced Natives from their ancestral lands. Adams wanted the applied text to be challenging to read because the language in the documents was meant to be confusing. She chose calico fabric because it was the first industrialized commodity made in the United States for export, and it financially benefited the white community. Quilting was a skill taught during the boarding school era.