Decorated with deer toes, white clamshells, and wampum beads made from quahog clam shells found along the East Coast, this beaver hide and deerskin pouch features design elements that Mark Tayac’s people have used for many generations. Tayac, the 29th-generation Chief of the Piscataway Indian Nation, harvested shells from the Chesapeake Bay and hand-formed them into 29 purple-and-white wampum beads. The hides came from animals killed by automobiles, which the artist collected and transformed with the intention of honoring them. He describes this renewed purpose for the animals as a way of “bringing them home.” This bag signals the interconnected histories of the Piscataway people, the Chesapeake region, and tobacco. Such bags mirror traditional ones used to hold tobacco and pipes. Both wampum and tobacco tie into centuries-old cultural traditions of Native people of the mid-Atlantic region, and the plant remains an essential element for Piscataway ceremonies. Elise Boulanger, Preoccupied: Indigenizing the Museum, Finding Home, May 12, 2024.