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Tobacco Bag

CultureKiowa, Oklahoma
Dateca. 1890
MediumNative tanned leather, glass beads, and native pigment
DimensionsOverall: 27 3/4 × 5 1/2 inches (70.49 × 13.97 cm)
Credit LineGift of Berte and Alan Hirschfield
Object number2007.42
On View
On view
Gallery Location
  • 208
DescriptionVertical leather bag, heavily fringed at bottom below a panel of embroidered glass beadwork; four beaded lappets suspended from top; upper leather panel painted pale yellow.Gallery Label
The geometric design forming the beaded panel of this rare Kiowa bag was almost certainly intended as a pictographic landscape. Across the bottom, a row of motifs including green triangles suggests the earth's horizon. Above, radiating brightness within the pre-dawn, eastern sky is a large red equilateral cross within a blue diamond-the morning star. Its four expanding points terminate in Latin crosses, now associated with Christianity. Collectively, the design may be symbolic of the Native American Church, which incorporates both the morning star and Christian imagery within its iconography.
Published References
Torrence, Gaylord, ed. Continuum: North American Native Art at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. Kansas City: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art.
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