Sioux Beaded Possible Bags & Bible Cover
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GUEST:
My mom is on this float. It's Cooladay or Coladay, I'm not sure how you pronounce it. It's the royal party. She grew up in Wakpala, South Dakota, and was raised on the reservation and attended St. Elizabeth's Mission School.
APPRAISER:
And she was born in what year?
GUEST:
1921.
APPRAISER:
So Wakpala, South Dakota, is located within the boundaries of the Standing Rock Reservation.
GUEST:
Right.
APPRAISER:
Which is a large reservation area. And the groups that you find are the Lakota and the Dakota.
GUEST:
Yeah.
APPRAISER:
So she was up there as a missionary?
GUEST:
Her mother taught at the Mission, and her father ran the general store.
APPRAISER:
The Standing Rock Reservation was established in the late 1800s. What I love about what you brought in here is it represents a sort of transition from the traditional way of life to an adaptation into the 20th century, how they carried their craft forward and how to sustain themselves financially, I imagine. Also just to adapt to the fact that they were involved in the St. Elizabeth Missionary School. So your mother collected these pieces?
GUEST:
My theory is that possibly, Indians bartered some of their goods for things at the store.
APPRAISER:
Very possible, very common behavior. These two large bags, this matched pair, are called possible bags. It's actually a translation from the Sioux of "anything possible can fit in them." While they were being migratory, they were used as saddle bags. When they were stationary, they were used to store materials within the teepee. They're wonderful examples of traditional tribal use. On today's market at auction, they would probably achieve $4,000 for the pair.
GUEST:
Wow.
APPRAISER:
And what I also loved about this is how they carry their traditional beadwork into material that could adapt to their environment. So we're in the Missionary School, the women who did the beading created this Bible cover, and it's really quite charming. It was probably done at a later date, where the bags are from the turn of the century. The book is probably about from 1920, judging from the beads, and it contains a bilingual Bible and hymnal that was probably used at St. Mary's. It would be collected by both collectors of Native American art and folk art people because it's just charming, and its value would probably be between $400 and $600.
GUEST:
Oh, that's really nice.
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