Tipi Bag or Possible Bag
Arts of the Americas
Vivid blue captures the eye in these Salish or Kootenai child’s moccasins and Sioux storage bag. The blue seed beads on both objects are made of glass colored with cobalt blue. Native women made all the clothing and furnishings for their families and eagerly adopted beads as decorative embellishments because of the vast array of colors and greater convenience.
MEDIUM
Hide, beads, tin cones, horse hair
DATES
ca. 1860–1900
DIMENSIONS
15 1/2 x 20 1/2 in. (39.4 x 52.1 cm)
(show scale)
ACCESSION NUMBER
X1111.1
CREDIT LINE
Brooklyn Museum Collection
CATALOGUE DESCRIPTION
Tipi bag or possible bag. The beads are sewn with sinew in a 'lazy stitch'. Kroeber called the design a transverse bar or lengthened checker pattern. Bag is beaded on one side with a decoration of crossed and abstracted forms in red, blue, gold and green. The edges are also beaded with metal jingles and orange dyed horsehair decorations. The two-ended, pitchfork-type design is classic Sioux. It is Central Plains but not Cheyenne or Arapaho. Bead workers would also do this type of beading to show off their expertise so some were also made to be ornamental or given away as gifts.
MUSEUM LOCATION
This item is not on view
CAPTION
Sioux. Tipi Bag or Possible Bag, ca. 1860–1900. Hide, beads, tin cones, horse hair, 15 1/2 x 20 1/2 in. (39.4 x 52.1 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn Museum Collection, X1111.1. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, X1111.1_PS1.jpg)
IMAGE
overall, X1111.1_PS1.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph, 2007
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RIGHTS STATEMENT
Creative Commons-BY
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What is this?
This was a storage bag most likely made by a Sioux artist. Made of soft animal hide, they would be used to hold clothing and household items while traveling.
De que material son las cuentas insertas en los diseños?
Son cuentas de vidrio. Cuentas de vidrio no existían en América del norte antes del siglo 17 pero cuando los europeos llegaron, las cuentas de vidrio no existía en América del Norte antes del Siglo XVII pero cuando los europeos llegaron, las cuentas de vidrio se convirtieron en una mercancía valiosa. Los nativos americanos solían usar semillas pero prefirieron las cuentas de vidrio porque eran mas durables, menos laboriosas, y existen en muchos más colores. Además, son un símbolo de estatus individual e identidad étnica.
