Bandolier Bags from Native North America

Heavily Beaded Symbols of Prestige and Craftsmanship

Mar 13, 2009

Bandolier Bags are heavily beaded bags that are still used as prestige symbols for some Native Nations in North America. Adapting with change, these are works of art.

For thousands of years, the indigenous people of the North Western Hemisphere have used their environments to clothe, shelter and feed themselves. These people have assimilated, but it is during certain events and times of year when they show their pride with cultural objects. These cultural objects can be made by using traditional methods and materials, or by using modern methods and materials, but nonetheless showing skill and dignity. One of those worthy items are the bandolier bags. Starting with their use in the Great Lakes area, these bags have become multi-tribal over the centuries. Each bag is unique, but all share the same characteristics, masterful bead work on a wide strap and bag or decorative panel.

The Evolution of the Bandolier Bag

The bandolier bag has evolved over time with the introduction of modern materials, such as beads and a variety of different types of cloth. Initially, the bandolier bag was copied by the look and style of the European cartridge bags that soldiers used during the early nineteenth century. The first bandolier bags were actually not bags at all and solely used for decoration, presenting a square panel of cotton, wool, velvet or leather. The bags quickly became functional and iconic for the tribes that used them, being seen as an item of prestige. The more bandolier bags worn, the more influential the family was noted to be. Although mainly used by men, women were the ones that were in charge of construction and bead work decoration. When women did wear bandolier bags in the Great Lakes area, it was usually in memory of a deceased male relative, or representing a far away male relative at an event. Sometimes called friendship bags, the bandolier bags were also great gift items at giveaways, as well as trade items, being traded as far out as some plains tribes and the American Southwest and Southeast. Made by the people of the Great Lakes area (Ojibwe, Potawatomi, Ho-Chunk/Winnebago, Menominee, Creek, and Sauk tribes), the bags of the past have woodland bead designs on them as seen with the images of woodland creatures or plants and flowers beaded on them.

What Bandolier Bags Look Like and How They are Worn

A typical bandolier bag has a wide strap that is usually worn over the shoulder and across the chest. One bag is worn at a time, but they can be worn two at a time with one on each shoulder and crossing in the middle of chest and back. Two being worn at the same time is not as common as just wearing one. Another way of wearing or using them is to wear it around the neck like a necklace, or to hang it around the neck of a horse. The strap is beaded with two patterns visible on it. The color scheme is similar, but the front half of the strap is different then the back half of the strap. Some bags have been seen with the same pattern on the whole strap, but it is found many times on modern bandolier bags. The strap is sewn onto a heavily beaded bag, which when worn rests at the hip level. It has a slit at the top to get into the bag. It is worn as part of the formal dress of several tribes around the United States, but it’s popularity can still be seen largely in the Great Lakes region, at both cultural and non-cultural public events.

Not strictly used by the Great Lakes tribes any longer, the use of the bandolier bag has grown to an intertribal cultural art form. Historically, bandolier bags were strictly used for decoration, as well as traded from one tribe to another for needed goods. Each bag, new and old, has its own life, and is in itself a work of art. Still a gendered object during important events, women and a few occupationally driven men are still making bandolier bags for family members, and tribal members. The only difference in today’s bags versus last century’s bags, are the details in bead work.

Green, Rayna & Melanie Fernandez. (1999). The British Museum: Encyclopedia of Native North America. Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press.

Penney, David & Richard Pohrt, Jr. (1996). Bags of Friendship; Bandolier Bags of the Great Lakes Indians. Albuquerque, NM: University of New Mexico Press.

Smithsonian Institution. (1994). All Roads are Good: Native Voices on Life and Culture. Washington D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press.

The copyright of the article Bandolier Bags from Native North America in Native American History is owned by Maureen Zieber. Permission to republish Bandolier Bags from Native North America in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.