Bandeliertas

Bandoleer Bag; Great Lakes; ca. 1875-1900 Wool, cotton, glass; 96 x 36 cm. RMV 2098-1; donated by C. Bondam (unidentified), 1926 This is not a typical bandolier bag (Gashkibidaagan, Aazhooningwa’igan, Aazhooningwi’igan) either in form or in beadwork design and therefore not easily attributable to any single Woodlands/Great Lakes nation. The bag is constructed with a red wool stroud foundation cloth likely produced in Europe for the North American Fur Trade during the mid-19th century and bound with a wool twill bias tape (often used). The loomed panels and the bead size used also suggest late 19th century origins. The small repetitive geometric motif might be Ojibwe, but is more frequently attributed to bead artists of the Menominee or Potawatomi nations by other scholars. The loomed construction consisting of one entire piece rather than a pocket panel and one or two strap panels is rather unusual, as is the cut into the pocket panel area and resulting small opening for pocket access. A few other examples of a similar form and design exist in private and public collections but limited provenance prevents specific cultural attribution. The bandolier bag is a complex object often comprised of multiple layers of recycled fabrics, newspaper, and oilcloth; surface decorated with beads and embellished with wool twill bias tape (also known as braid & used by the US military and in women’s 19th century garments), silk ribbon, rick rack, yarn, sequins, etc. The major surface decoration of these bags made during the late 19th through 20th century was rendered in geometric and/or floral motifs. Their unique and distinctive imagery was attached to the bag surface either with panels of loomed beadwork that were applied to a cloth foundation or with beads that were attached, 1 to 3 beads at a time, using a needle and thread in a technique known as spot stitch or appliqué. The date of manufacture can be estimated based on bead size, the fabrics used, size and origin of beads, whether the beadwork is loom woven or applied, and on the motifs employed. Artwork and photographs suggest that the earliest bandoleer bag or its precursor was in use in the first quarter of the 19th century in North America. Bandolier bags are identified as shoulder bags, with both the strap and pocket decorated primarily with glass beads. The beads used most often in the bags made by Great Lakes tribes were imported from Bohemian or Czechoslovakia. The bag’s most distinctive characteristic is that it is made to be worn across the chest with the strap over one shoulder and the pocket resting on the opposite hip. It is commonly assumed that the bandolier bag was given its moniker by non-Indians because American Indians wore them the same way that Euro-American military men wore powder pouches and ammunition belts. Early images of First Americans as depicted by European immigrant artists present indigenous people wearing animal hides, quiver straps and other accessories across the chest or from the shoulder, suggesting that the wearing method was not introduced solely by immigrants. Bandolier bags or their precursors were made by American Indian peoples in the Southeast, the Northeast, the Great Lakes and the far West. But from the mid 19th and well into the 20th century is the period when bandolier bags achieved their most prolific presence, and the area of greatest productivity in their creation was among some of the Algonquian language based nations of the Great Lakes (Ojibwe, Ho-Chunk or Winnebago, Menominee, Potawatomi, Sac & Fox or Meskwaki). But Ojibw (also known as Anishinabeg, Ojibwa, Chippewa) bags particularly dominated. Bandoleer bags began as highly decorative and potentially functional objects. Historically they may have held tobacco, personal effects, or other materials tied to an event or activity during which they were worn. Like all functional objects, bandolier bags could serve many purposes depending on the individual’s preferences. What may have originated as a decorated, small, functional pouch eventually emerged as a large bag more valued for its visual impression than practicality, eventually ceasing to exist as a bag with a functioning pocket, at all. Marcia G. Anderson, St. Paul, MN Een belangrijk deel van het ceremoniële kleed van de Chippewa's is de bandolier; een grote met kralen versierde tas met brede schouderband en franjes of kwastjes aan de onderzijde. Bandoliers werden door de welgestelde Chippewa's gedragen, meestal één over elke schouder. De tas lijkt op de munitietas die in de achttiende eeuw door Britse soldaten werd gebruikt. De Chippewa's en andere volkeren in de Central Woodlands maakten hun eerste eigen bandoliers aan het begin van de negentiende eeuw. Volgens sommigen werden de met kralenwerk versierde tassen aan het eind van de winter met de Sioux tegen paarden geruild. Elke versierde tas zou de waarde van één paard hebben. Vanaf 1860 kwamen meer Europese glazen kralen in omloop en werden ze geheel met kralenwerk versierd waarbij vaak voor bloemmotieven werd gekozen.