Late 19th Century
Dimensions: 6.5" X 5”

Apache Pictorial beadwork is extremely rare. These two figures are depicted in very lively poses, one with his arms raised up and the other arms outreached and bending down to his left. Gan dancers representing the Mountain Spirits make some of these same gyrating movements when they dance, but they wear wooden slat-like crowns which are absent here. The figures may be a reference to the Daagodigha movement that was started by a Shaman, Big John amongst the Western Apache in the late 19th- early 20th Century. This was a messianic/revivalistic movement which stressed that Good Apaches would be lifted up, while the earth was purged of evil and then be returned to a cleansed earth of Good and Plenty. The Cross and Crescent were symbols of this movement, both of which appear on the bag's flap.

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