A bandolier bag is a
Native American shoulder pouch, often beaded. Early examples were made from pelts, twined fabrics, or hide, but beginning in the
fur trade era, Native American women across sewed these bags with imported wool broadcloth, lined with cotton calico, and often edged with silk ribbons.
Name
The bags are named for
bandolier
A bandolier or a bandoleer is a pocketed belt for holding either individual bullets, or belts of ammunition. It is usually slung sash-style over the shoulder and chest, with the ammunition pockets across the midriff and chest. Though functiona ...
s or the cloths carrying
gunpowder
Gunpowder, also commonly known as black powder to distinguish it from modern smokeless powder, is the earliest known chemical explosive. It consists of a mixture of sulfur, carbon (in the form of charcoal) and potassium nitrate (saltpeter). Th ...
that soldiers wore from the 16th to early 20th centuries. They are also called shot pouches or simply shoulder bags.
In
Ojibwemowin, or the Ojibwe language, bandolier bags are called ''gashkibidaagan''. The Ojibwe name comes from the word parts, gashk-, meaning "enclosed, attached together" and -bid, "tie it."
The English word ''bandolier'' comes from the French word ''bandouliere'' meaning "shoulder belt" and traces back to the Spanish ''bandoera'' the diminutive of ''banda'' or "sash."
Use
A bandolier bag may be worn either across the shoulder to the side or in front like an apron.
Men wore them and placed valuables such as tobacco, pipes, medicine, or flint for starting fires.
Gallery
File:BandolierBag-BMA.jpg, Muscogee
The Muscogee, also known as the Mvskoke, Muscogee Creek, and the Muscogee Creek Confederacy ( in the Muscogee language), are a group of related indigenous (Native American) peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands[Birmingham Museum of Art
The Birmingham Museum of Art is a museum in Birmingham, Alabama. It has one of the most extensive collections of artwork in the Southeastern United States, with more than 24,000 paintings, sculptures, prints, drawings, and decorative arts repres ...]
File:Bandolier Bag MET DT258625.jpg, Loom-beaded bandolier bag attributed to Winnebago people
The Ho-Chunk, also known as Hoocągra or Winnebago (referred to as ''Hotúŋe'' in the neighboring indigenous Iowa-Otoe language), are a Siouan-speaking Native American people whose historic territory includes parts of Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iow ...
, ca. 1880s, collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art
File:The Childrens Museum of Indianapolis - Bandolier bag - detail.jpg, Ojibwa bandolier bag detail, c. 1900, in the collection of The Children's Museum of Indianapolis
References
External links
Bandolier Bag Collection Milwaukee Public Museum
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Bags
Native American religion
Indigenous culture of the Great Plains
Indigenous culture of the Northeastern Woodlands
Indigenous culture of the Southeastern Woodlands
Indigenous culture of the Subarctic