Tipi bag

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This bag was made during the early reservation period, after the United States government outlawed the Lakota’s annual Sundance and instituted Fourth of July celebrations in its place. During this time, the American flag and interpretations of the Great Seal of the United States became popular beadwork motifs. The artist may have made the container as a special gift. Earlier, in nomadic times, this same type of object transported belongings from one camp to the next and also ornamented the inside of the tipi.

The American Wing

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The American Wing's ever-evolving collection comprises some 20,000 works of art by African American, Euro American, Latin American, and Native American men and women. Ranging from the colonial to early-modern periods, the holdings include painting, sculpture, works on paper, and decorative arts—including furniture, textiles, ceramics, glass, silver, metalwork, jewelry, basketry, quill and bead embroidery—as well as historical interiors and architectural fragments.

Metropolitan Museum of Art