Cornhusk bag / Native American; Nez Perce
Essay/Description
Twined corn husk bag with various geometric designs. The front of the bag is decorated with dyed red, black, blue, green, and pink yarn, and the back is decorated with dyed red, black, and blue yarn. There are also areas on the back of the bag where the corn husk has been dyed. The top of the bag has remnants of a leather strap.
“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.