View Two: Materials of a Parfleche Bag

This Parfleche bag has rawhide strings that are used to tie it closed. All of it is made out of rawhide (the main part is one sheet of rawhide folded up) except for the decorative paint. Blackfoot people used plants, fungi, and clay to make dyes or paints at the time this bag was manufactured. Preparing the rawhide was done by cleaning and dehairing the skin, which was then stretched and dried in the sun. The skin was staked to the ground and then scraped to an even thickness, and protected from the elements with prickly pear juice. Before this, the skin had to be dampened with water. The end result was waterproof, durable leather. The manufacturer of this Parfleche is unknown, but before 1884 it belonged to a Kainai man named Weasel Fat.