Cornhusk bag / Native American; Nez Perce
Essay/Description
Twined corn husk bag with various geometric designs. The front is decorated with dyed red and green yarn, and the back is decorated with dyed red and black yarn. The back of the bag also has areas of the corn husk dyed green to produce the patterns. The bag has a cotton string tie around the top.
“Friendship bags,” also known as corn-husk bags, are made of twined cornhusk and contain woven, and sometimes beaded, elaborate geometric or naturalistic designs (Paterek 1994, 212-213). Women often used these bags to “store edible roots and many sorts of valuable goods” (Berlo & Phillips 1998, 132). The Plateau region tribes also traded these bags with many different tribes and later with white explorers and settlers.