Med (6") Wabanaki Bag, elk hide, red wool- treaty design: Paul St John, Mohawk

Description

on this vintage red wool and elk hide bag is a traditional and beautiful Wabanaki design - one used in treaties -  in blue and white vintage glass seed beads.  This is a medium (6" long) shoulder bag with front of vintage red trade wool and the back, flap and straps of elk hide.  At the strap attachments on top sides there are 2 brass tin cone "dangles" on either side.  These cones are 1.25" long.  There is a hand carved bone bead used as a closure for the flap. This bag is made by Paul St John, Mohawk craftsman.
You can wear this as a shoulder bag or tie it to your belt/sash. (or use it as a decorative object). Paul St John has recently made a Wabanaki woman's peaked cap, a Wabanaki Glengarry cap and a larger and 2 similar size smaller bags.  All of these are now sold but each had similar but distinctly different designs that incorporate  double curves, designs using blue & white beads (some also have red beads).
With the flap closed this bag is 6" long, the width is 4.5" and the strap is 22" from top side of bag at it's attachment point to center back of strap. Long enough for a shoulder strap... or... You can tie a knot at top back of strap so it is as short or long as you like.  The flap is 2.5" long
Wabanaki & Iroquois traditionally made and used various types of bags, medicine bags and shoulder bags, of varying styles, sizes, materials  and designs.  Here vintage white glass seed beads are used to make a traditional beaded Wabanaki design on the front- with double curves and X's in center squares.
The Wabanaki confederation tribes include Abenaki, Passamaquoddy, Penobscot, Maliseet and MicMac (Mi'kmaq is one of the Canadian spellings of MicMac).
You can use this as part of your regalia, wear it over your shoulder, wear it around your neck under or over your shirt/blouse with traditional herbal or current medication - or money or whatever you like --- Or use it as a  beautiful decorative display piece.
Paul St. John now lives in Maine, near his mother's Passamaquoddy, Maliseet and Micmac relatives.  He is an enrolled Mohawk and grew up on the Mohawk lands in New York, his father's tribe.   2nd from last photo in slideshow is of Paul St John and 2 of his other works.  Last photo is of his Mohawk grandmother, Amelia St John who taught him beading.
Paul St John also makes birchbark, porcupine quill and coiled sweetgrass baskets, beaded knife cases, traditional dolls, water drums, birch bark rattles, beaded barrettes and moccasins among numerous other traditional crafts - check out more of his work in this ebay store.