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Lakota Sioux Beaded Pipe Bag, Water Bug Design
Lakota Sioux, northern Plains
1880
Native hide, glass beads, sinew, feathers
Length with fringe 28 1/2" (72.4 cm)
Provenance: Private collection, Montana
Lakota pipe bags are among the most sacred objects in Plains material culture, understood as containers for the heart and holders of the sacred pipes and tobacco that symbolically contain the very heart of the people. Pipes and smoking pipes draw the universe together to activate prayers, thoughts, and blessings, and pipe bags are imbued with the power of the materials they hold, treated with respect and reverence as sacred objects. Pipe bags are held in the left hand, closer to the heart, and stored in places of honor, their decoration reflecting the distinctive artistic traditions of the maker.
This bag is beaded with the Water Bug design, a named Lakota motif with specific cultural meaning, executed in polychrome beadwork on a white ground with each side featuring an entirely different design as is characteristic of the tradition. The beaded fringe with feather accents at the base extends the full decorative program of the bag into its functional elements, consistent with Lakota pipe bag production of the 1880s. Provenance traces to a private collection in Montana.
We ship free anywhere in the world, fully insured, packed by hand.
Lakota Sioux, northern Plains
1880
Native hide, glass beads, sinew, feathers
Length with fringe 28 1/2" (72.4 cm)
Provenance: Private collection, Montana
Lakota pipe bags are among the most sacred objects in Plains material culture, understood as containers for the heart and holders of the sacred pipes and tobacco that symbolically contain the very heart of the people. Pipes and smoking pipes draw the universe together to activate prayers, thoughts, and blessings, and pipe bags are imbued with the power of the materials they hold, treated with respect and reverence as sacred objects. Pipe bags are held in the left hand, closer to the heart, and stored in places of honor, their decoration reflecting the distinctive artistic traditions of the maker.
This bag is beaded with the Water Bug design, a named Lakota motif with specific cultural meaning, executed in polychrome beadwork on a white ground with each side featuring an entirely different design as is characteristic of the tradition. The beaded fringe with feather accents at the base extends the full decorative program of the bag into its functional elements, consistent with Lakota pipe bag production of the 1880s. Provenance traces to a private collection in Montana.
We ship free anywhere in the world, fully insured, packed by hand.