Lakota Pipe Bags
“In Edward S. Curtis’ third volume he describes the decorative arts of the Lakota people. They were known for their deerskin garments, parfleches, shields, pipe-bags, robes, saddles blankets and of course, tipis. The primitive works they created before the arrivals of traders were made mostly with dyed porcupine quills. After trading became a part of their lives they were able to use beads in combination with the quills to create beautiful artworks.
Edward S. Curtis observed no fixed motif in most of their designs. This particular image called “Pipe Bags” shows three tobacco-pouch bags. The middle one is particularly ornate and is made of quills and beads.
The one to the left is a “waka” or sacred pouch that has been in the family of the Ogalala chief, Slow Bull, for four generations. Slow Bull’s pouch is designed after the human figure and represents a strange enemy killed in old times in the midst of a buffalo herd, and the tufts of hair are symbolic of the scalp-locks taken. Four pipes represent the four generations and the circle of beads represents embryonic life and the pouch is considered very good luck during childbirth. The hands on the top of the bag represent the enemy killed by each generation. The red stripes represent the four winds.
“Slow Bulls father told him to put on the pouch a beaded hoof for each horse he captured, but when seventeen years of age he took one hundred and seventy horses at one time, so he had embroidered on it as many hoofprints as the pouch would accommodate.” – Edward S. Curtis
The pouch to the right is a particularly old bag, made entirely of quills.”
hand colored photo
Lakota Pipe Bags by Edward S. Curtis – 1908