01-077: Parfleches & Pouches

By Dorthea Calverley What did an Indian boy do for pockets, since his clothes had none? He, like his elders, carried various bags and boxes. The largest boxes called parfleches were of many sizes and usually made of rawhide. Some were as large as suitcases, and almost as stiff as a trunk. These might be joined together in pairs by straps which suspended them as saddlebags when the Indians obtained horses. They were actually much stronger than the white man’s wooden panniers. Some were specially designed to carry ceremonial costumes or articles such as drums and rattles.

Parfleches, cut out of raw buffalo hide when still fresh and pliable, could be designed with few seams, being simply folded and sewn with babiche or wet sinew. Rawhide shrinks when dried, so much so that the container would be virtually waterproof. Thus they were satisfactory for carrying foods and spare clothing across streams or in canoes.

They were frequently painted or stained with symbolic designs, thus becoming a means of demonstrating ownership or artistic talent. Sometimes the hair was left on. For personal use, pouches were made of soft-tanned small furs or bird skins. These would have a thong for attaching to a belt, or for hanging from the shoulder or neck. Some had flaps like an envelope, others a drawstring. Every adult would have a “medicine bag” in which he or she secreted personal good-luck charms or trinkets, small personal articles such as combs, and packets of “medicines” (herbs or animal parts) in whose powers they believed. In one such modern pouch we saw lengths of “rat root” — a precious herbal remedy one inch of which was worth one horse in barter. Others carried braids of sweetgrass which were burned as incense during ceremonials.

The man of the family had a special pouch known as his “medicine bundle” which was treated with great ceremony and respect. The hunter’s quiver, longer than a man’s arm, was specially made for carrying his arrows on his back. Later they had gun-cases.

The baby’s cradle was a very large pouch, suspended on the mother’s back by a band around the forehead.

On all such pouches or bags the women delighted to make elaborate designs, first in beautiful quill work, later with traders’ beads. The quillwork was much finer, more delicate and more subdued in colour, being dyed with herbs and earth colours. . Only after the introduction of beads were the more gaudy colours obtainable.

Fur, the tails, claws or bones of animals along with shells, human hair and cut fringes were other adornments. The pouch and its contents might be the only personal possession the Indian had. To him or her it was a treasure. The “medicine bundle” of the shaman or chief was a very large pouch, treated with great respect and reverence.

A curious use of a pouch has been mentioned in connection with a very aged Sekani or Slavey Indian woman from around Fort Nelson. For years she was easily identified because of a small leather pouch sewn onto her cheek. Nobody has been able to tell us the significance of this “adornment” or how she came to have it