Dig It - 7/27/23
Say Hey Fellow Seekers, today we are going to look at a very unique Pictorial Apache Pouch. In my many years of dealing with Native American beadwork I have only seen a handful of 19th Century Apache Pictorial bags, and I have to say this is the Best. What is going on here? Who are these crazy figures and how are they interacting with each other? I was told when I bought this bag that one guy was robbing the other. That could be, but I think there is probably another explanation, though I’m not sure what that is.
These gyrating figures may be Apache Gan dancers, who impersonate the Mountain Spirits and do a lot of similar poses in their dances. However, Gan dancers wear wooden slat headdresses and carry wooden wands, which are absent here. Perhaps these human-like figures are abbreviated forms of Gan dancers or the Mountain Spirits.
The flap is decorated with crosses and crescents, both of which are symbols associated with the Daagodigha movement which was started by an Apache Shaman, “Big John” in the late 19th to early 20th century. This was a Messianic/Revivalist movement that stressed, “Good Apache” would be Lifted Up while the earth was purged of evil and then retuned to a cleansed earth of Good and Plenty.
This square pouch measures 6.5’ X 5” and is currently for sale