dispatch case, unrecorded Ka’igwu artist

Exhibition Label: "Roots and Journeys: Encountering Global Arts and Cultures," Jun-2013, Cassandra Mesick Variously embellished with porcupine quills, glass beads, and pigment, these bags illustrate abstract Native American art from the Great Plains produced during the 19th and early 20th centuries. Artists wove fragile hand-dyed porcupine quills into bold patterns, exemplified by the simple but striking central panel on this Arapaho pipe bag. After European traders inundated local markets with new goods, quills were gradually-but never wholly-supplanted by glass beads, which were incorporated onto shoes, clothing, and accessories like this dispatch bag. Leather, buckskin, and rawhide also provided a medium for painting. Women used saturated pigments to design bold rectilinear geometric patterns akin to the diamond and triangular forms seen on this parfleche, or carrying envelope.