Penobscot sweetgrass flat block, ca. 1900Item 23462 info
Hudson Museum, Univ. of Maine
Maine's forests provided a wide range of raw materials that were used for shelter, transportation and medicine, and for carving household utensils, tools and weapons.
As Gluskabe taught them, Maine Indians used all parts of what they took from the forest -- wood, bark, leaves and roots.
This simple hoop was used to make flats, which required hundreds of yards of sweetgrass braid and were often used to store sewing notions.