Possible Bag
Cheyenne Donor: Denver Art Museum UCM 10363 |
All of the possible bags shown are largely made of the same base material: hide. The Plains Indians would use the hide of large animals such as bison, elk, and deer to create items like clothing, housing, and bags. The process to prepare a hide is time consuming and physically exhausting. In more recent designs, bags incorporate fabrics, like canvas, as a base material.
Quillwork is a popular design technique throughout North America, and especially in early bag creation. This material was collected from porqupine quills, bird feather quills, and vegetal materials made to look like quills. The quill would be chosen carefully from certain areas of the animal depending on its intended use. Plains groups are also well known for beautiful beadwork. Beadwork evolved from quillwork, but is considered a quicker and sometimes easier art form. The type of bead seen on the bags in this exhibit are all commercial glass beads and were introduced to the Plains Indians in the mid 19th century by colonial explorers and object collectors, as well as fur traders. For more information, check out this video describing bead and quill use:
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and this website on hide, quill, and beadwork:
http://nmai.si.edu/sites/1/files/pdf/education/NMAI_lifeinbeads.pdf |
Hide and CanvasDue to the size and purpose of these bags, the hide used is thick and in large pieces. In order to create this object, the hide would need to be from a larger animal. Often, the animals used were bison, elk, and deer- all common to the Plains area.
Once the animal has been culled and brought back to camp, the women would remove the hide and begin to process the material, cleaning and softening the hide. A common processing is called brain tanning, in which the animals brain is cooked and spread along the hide- this softens the material. The entire process is long and exhausting, but is still practiced today! In addition to hide, beginning in the late 19th century, the use of canvas became more popular. Only one of the bags present in the CUMNH possible bag collection uses canvas. This bag, UCM 10699, is featured in the images above. The front area with beading is backed with hide, however, the back and less visible side is made from tan colored canvas. In older bags, it is common to see thin strips of sinew used as thread. However, none of the bags in this exhibit use sinew, but commercial thread instead. Above Image:
Possibles bag Unaffiliated Plains Donor: Denver Art Museum UCM 10366 |
QuillQuill is a very old form of decoration and art. It predates beadwork by hundreds of years.
Today, porcupines are found throughout Western North America. The most popular dye colors used on Plains quillwork are red and yellow. There are numerous different natural substances that could be used to create these colors: Yellow- Ratibida columnaris (Prairie corn flower), Helianthus annuus (wild sunflower) Red- Gaium tintorum (Stiff bedstraw), as well as minerals such as ochre. This Sioux bag demonstrates multiple vertical quill lines, each dyed red with two repetitive sections of yellow dye. Above image:
Possibles bag Sioux Donor: Denver Art Museum UCM 18001 |
BeadBeadwork designs began in the Plains region of North America during the mid 19th century. Shell beads have been used by Native American tribes for many hundreds of years prior, but the beads you see on the bags featured in this exhibit are all commercial, European-made, glass seed beads. Seed beads are identifiable by their small size and varied, vibrant colors.
These beads were introduced into the region through trade in the 1850's. The introduction of glass beads lead to changes in beadwork design. Previous to the small beads depicted above, the Plains indians used a larger type of bead which restricted the ability of a maker to create small, detailed images. The glass seed beads allowed for intricate, miniature designs on objects like possible bags. Above image:
Possibles bag Sioux Donor: Charlie Eagle Plume UCM 33424b |