Minneapolis Institute of Art

Bandolier Bag

Anishinaabe (Ojibwe) artist

Date

19th-20th century

Medium

Cotton, glass beads, wool

Culture

Anishinaabe (Ojibwe)

Department

Arts of the Americas

Institution

Minneapolis Institute of Art

In the Woodlands region there is a tradition of making bags and pouches to hold personal belongings. By the late 19th century, men frequently wore large, heavily beaded bags, sometimes two at a time, for dress occasions. A gashkibidagun, known in English as a bandolier bag, was far more important as a form of prestigious body decoration than as a functional object. In the Eastern Woodlands women had long decorated their family's clothing and accessories with porcupine-quill embroidery, a difficult art practiced only in North America. Made as gifts to close relatives, beaded bags and other decorated items of clothing represented both the closeness of family bonds and the skill of the maker. When glass beads from Europe became available through trade in the 19th century, women adapted their technique to new designs of Anishinaabe (Ojibwe), United States, Americas

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