Trade blankets, which incorporate Native American designs, were used as barter by whites who traded with the Indians.
N.F.L. and N.B.A. jerseys rewoven into mock trade blankets make an even more pointed comment on the clash between culturally imposed and traditional tribal identities.
Especially beautiful are several Mfengu skirts made from cotton trade blankets and decorated with grids and rows of beads, buttons and appliquéd fabric.
In the end, Mr. Hays bought two pieces, both of them "early Indian trade blankets," Ms. Rubenstein said: one striped, by Capps, and another with a totem pole design, by Jacobs Oregon City, made in the early 1900s.
"Wrapped in Tradition," an exhibition of American Indian trade blankets and 15 glass cylinders based on the design and colors of the blankets by the artist Dale Chihuly, are on display at the Washington State History Museum in Tacoma through Oct. 27.
What you will find in the galleries are some of Chihuly's many collections: Northwest baskets (some of which have slumped over time, inspiring some of Chihuly's own slumped glass designs), trade blankets and Edward S. Curtis Native American portraits.
Yuki Matsuda's Monitaly, based in Hermosa Beach, Calif., took Old West-style trading blankets recolored in Crayola primaries and turned them into terrific shawl-collared, belted coats that looked cozy and cool.
He also designs interiors and has a healthy trade in blankets, particularly among wealthy clients who are looking to outfit a private jet or a screening room.
For them, the buckskin ceiling is an art-world bias that makes space for traditional beadwork, buckskins and trading-post blankets, and ignores almost everything else.
