Skip Navigation

Parfleche Bag

Arts of the Americas

CULTURE Arapaho
MEDIUM Hide, pigment
DATES ca. 1900
DIMENSIONS 26 1/2 x 15 1/2 x 1 1/2 in. (67.3 x 39.4 x 3.8 cm)  (show scale)
COLLECTIONS Arts of the Americas
ACCESSION NUMBER X1111.3
CREDIT LINE Brooklyn Museum Collection
CATALOGUE DESCRIPTION Arapaho parfleche bag with painted stripes and diamond-shaped figures in red, green, blue and yellow. Condition is good. Hide somewhat stiff. The Arapaho believed that Whirlwind Woman, a mystical woman, taught them how to make their designs. The six spots around the hide are where Whirlwind Woman sat down when painting the design. The white rectangles or squares are symbolic of where the buffalo came into the world. The bar inside the edges is often seen in Arapaho designs. The black triangular figures are called Wal-say-dad or bear hands whether they do or do not show any claws. Arapaho parfleches often have a large amount of unpainted surface like this one and the use of sky-blue or green is the favorite color choice. The black used in outlining often came from the Cheyenne along the Powder River area. Arapaho women often were specialists in making certain types of things such as this bag. The buffalo hair side is turned inside but with hair removed. The bag would be used for food stuffs, such as dried meats, dried cherries, fat back and peppermint leaves, often stored for long times as emergency rations. It could also be used for other things; clothes, or feathers from headdresses. Former number 67954.1
MUSEUM LOCATION This item is not on view
CAPTION Arapaho. Parfleche Bag, ca. 1900. Hide, pigment, 26 1/2 x 15 1/2 x 1 1/2 in. (67.3 x 39.4 x 3.8 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn Museum Collection, X1111.3. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, CUR.X1111.3.jpg)
IMAGE overall, CUR.X1111.3.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph, 2006
"CUR" at the beginning of an image file name means that the image was created by a curatorial staff member. These study images may be digital point-and-shoot photographs, when we don\'t yet have high-quality studio photography, or they may be scans of older negatives, slides, or photographic prints, providing historical documentation of the object.
RIGHTS STATEMENT Creative Commons-BY
You may download and use Brooklyn Museum images of this three-dimensional work in accordance with a Creative Commons license. Fair use, as understood under the United States Copyright Act, may also apply. Please include caption information from this page and credit the Brooklyn Museum. If you need a high resolution file, please fill out our online application form (charges apply). For further information about copyright, we recommend resources at the United States Library of Congress, Cornell University, Copyright and Cultural Institutions: Guidelines for U.S. Libraries, Archives, and Museums, and Copyright Watch. For more information about the Museum's rights project, including how rights types are assigned, please see our blog posts on copyright. If you have any information regarding this work and rights to it, please contact copyright@brooklynmuseum.org.
RECORD COMPLETENESS
Not every record you will find here is complete. More information is available for some works than for others, and some entries have been updated more recently. Records are frequently reviewed and revised, and we welcome any additional information you might have.
Arapaho. <em>Parfleche Bag</em>, ca. 1900. Hide, pigment, 26 1/2 x 15 1/2 x 1 1/2 in. (67.3 x 39.4 x 3.8 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn Museum Collection, X1111.3. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, CUR.X1111.3.jpg)