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PROPERTY OF A NEW YORK GENTLEMAN
A SIOUX PONY BEADED AND QUILLED HIDE TOBACCO BAG
Details
A SIOUX PONY BEADED AND QUILLED HIDE TOBACCO BAG
of narrow, tapering form, sinew sewn and lane-stitched in black and white pony beads, each side decorated with an abstract horse track design surmounted by geometrical elements, striped bands along the sides, picot beadwork encircling the top, accented with dyed orange porcupine quillwork, the reverse, with a four-pointed star centering a suspension loop and quill-wrapped hide thongs with metal cones, the bottom panel, with narrow rawhide slats wrapped in hide and overlaid with orange and blue quillwork, the hide extending to long fringe below
Length: 35¾ in. (90.8 cm.) including fringe
of narrow, tapering form, sinew sewn and lane-stitched in black and white pony beads, each side decorated with an abstract horse track design surmounted by geometrical elements, striped bands along the sides, picot beadwork encircling the top, accented with dyed orange porcupine quillwork, the reverse, with a four-pointed star centering a suspension loop and quill-wrapped hide thongs with metal cones, the bottom panel, with narrow rawhide slats wrapped in hide and overlaid with orange and blue quillwork, the hide extending to long fringe below
Length: 35¾ in. (90.8 cm.) including fringe
Provenance
Gifted to the present owner's great-great grandfather, Captain Joseph Bullock Brown, a surgeon in the U.S. Medical Corps, by Cut-Mouth John, an Indian scout, who became his servant.
Further details
Tobacco Bags, or pipe bags, as they are popularly known, were a universal personal posession of Plains Indian men. In an effort to standardize succinct technology, Milford G. Chandler (1889-1981) coined the term tobacco bag. In the early 1900s, Chandler, a giant among researchers and collectors, enjoyed many opportunities to join old time Indians in smoking their pipes and utilizing the associated accouterments. He noted that for the most part they used tobacco bags to contain a pipe tamper, tobacco and flavoring additives. As well, the men frequently carried tobacco bags as an accessory to complete their outfit on dress occasions. Numerous historic photographs portray Plains Indian men holding a pipe with a tobacco bag either tied to the pipe stem, or the bag clinched in his other hand. (See Dyck, 1971 p. 75, 79, 97, 145.)
In addition to the act of smoking a pipe as a sacrament, Indian men and women alike enjoyed frequent casual smoking. When not in use, personal pipes and tobacco bags were generally stored together in another container, such as a parfleche (rawhide packing case), or in storage containers of tanned hide. However, large ceremonial pipes, with stems as long as 24" or more, were generally kept with other paraphernalia in "bundles." In actuality, the openings of most tobacco bags are too small to permit the stone pipe bowl to be placed inside- thus obviating the containment of most pipes in tobacco bags themselves. Consequently, tobacco bag is a more precise term.
This tobacco bag is of the Lakota (Western Sioux) type, and dates from the mid 19th century. Dr. Joseph Bullock Brown, an Army Surgeon, who retired as a high-ranking officer in 1886, collected this exceptional example in all probability when he was assigned to the Sioux Expedition which departed from Fort Leavenworth (Kansas) in 1855. This was the year in which the U.S. Army first engaged the Lakota.
The panels of beadwork are worked with white and black pony beads, which are two to three times larger than the seed beads so characteristic of Plains Indian arts of the later 19th century. (See Hanson, 1996 multiple color Plates.) The tanned hide self-fringes are wrapped with blue and orange porcupine quills at the top -- two predominant colors in Plains Indian quillwork of that era. A range of orange/red-orange dyes was probably extracted from the root of the bloodroot plant. The source of the blue dye is undetermined.
Embelematic motifs incorporated in the main beadwork panel represent horse tracks. Shaped like inverted block-shaped "U's", these motifs indubitably proclaim some kind of war record of the Indian owner -- that he had led or participated in military expeditions or horse raiding forays. (See Feder, 1965, fig. 19; a fully pony-beaded boy's shirt with horse tracks is pictured.)
The four-pointed star motif beaded on one side is generally considered to embody dual symbolism. It can represent the Morning Star, as well as the cardinal directions. Additional features of refinement include picot edge beading, short quill-wrapped fringes around the top, and spacer beads between the quilled slats. The extra long bottom fringes lend an especially stylish aspect to the bag.
Benson L. Lanford
Ashland, OR
May 6, 2003
In addition to the act of smoking a pipe as a sacrament, Indian men and women alike enjoyed frequent casual smoking. When not in use, personal pipes and tobacco bags were generally stored together in another container, such as a parfleche (rawhide packing case), or in storage containers of tanned hide. However, large ceremonial pipes, with stems as long as 24" or more, were generally kept with other paraphernalia in "bundles." In actuality, the openings of most tobacco bags are too small to permit the stone pipe bowl to be placed inside- thus obviating the containment of most pipes in tobacco bags themselves. Consequently, tobacco bag is a more precise term.
This tobacco bag is of the Lakota (Western Sioux) type, and dates from the mid 19th century. Dr. Joseph Bullock Brown, an Army Surgeon, who retired as a high-ranking officer in 1886, collected this exceptional example in all probability when he was assigned to the Sioux Expedition which departed from Fort Leavenworth (Kansas) in 1855. This was the year in which the U.S. Army first engaged the Lakota.
The panels of beadwork are worked with white and black pony beads, which are two to three times larger than the seed beads so characteristic of Plains Indian arts of the later 19th century. (See Hanson, 1996 multiple color Plates.) The tanned hide self-fringes are wrapped with blue and orange porcupine quills at the top -- two predominant colors in Plains Indian quillwork of that era. A range of orange/red-orange dyes was probably extracted from the root of the bloodroot plant. The source of the blue dye is undetermined.
Embelematic motifs incorporated in the main beadwork panel represent horse tracks. Shaped like inverted block-shaped "U's", these motifs indubitably proclaim some kind of war record of the Indian owner -- that he had led or participated in military expeditions or horse raiding forays. (See Feder, 1965, fig. 19; a fully pony-beaded boy's shirt with horse tracks is pictured.)
The four-pointed star motif beaded on one side is generally considered to embody dual symbolism. It can represent the Morning Star, as well as the cardinal directions. Additional features of refinement include picot edge beading, short quill-wrapped fringes around the top, and spacer beads between the quilled slats. The extra long bottom fringes lend an especially stylish aspect to the bag.
Benson L. Lanford
Ashland, OR
May 6, 2003