# Parfleche

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{{short description|Container made of rawhide}}
[[File:Lakota Parflech Displayed at the National Museum of the American Indian, Washington, D.C..jpg|400px|thumb|A '''parfleche''' is a type of wallet or bag made from rawhide. Historically made by Plateau, Great Basin, and [Plains women](/source/Plains_Indians), they are usually decorated with brightly colored geometrical designs.<ref name=Medicine/>]]
A '''parfleche''' is a [Native American](/source/Native_Americans_in_the_United_States) [rawhide](/source/rawhide_(textile)) container that is embellished by painting, incising, or both.

Envelope-shaped parfleches have historically been used to contain items such as household tools or foods, such as dried meat or [pemmican](/source/pemmican). They were commonly made in pairs and hung from saddles. Their designs may have once served as maps.<ref name=GoesInCenter>Goes In Center, Jhon (Oglala Lakota), "[http://www.conservationgis.org/native/native1.html  Native American and First Nations' GIS]" for ''Native Geography 2000''</ref> In contemporary usage, they may carry social, spiritual, and symbolic meaning, or be part of dance or parade regalia.

The bags are usually decorated with a distinctive style of graphic artwork, often symbolizing landscape features such as rivers and mountains.<ref name=GoesInCenter/> Historically women were the main creators of parfleches,<ref name=Medicine/> first painting stretched-out raw hides, then shaping them into their final form. In the 21st century, both women and men make them.

The increased mobility among the [post-contact](/source/European_Colonization_of_the_Americas) [Plains Indians](/source/Plains_Indians) [horse culture](/source/horse_culture) required that essential goods such as preserved foods (including [pemmican](/source/pemmican)), clothing, medicines, and ceremonial items be transported efficiently in lightweight and weatherproof packaging.<ref name=":12">{{Cite book|title=The American Indian Parfleche|last=Torrence|first=Gaylord|publisher=University of Washington Press|year=1994|location=Seattle|pages=29}}</ref>{{Rp|29.}} While the most common form of the parfleche was the folded envelope or flat wallet, they were also constructed as laced flat cases, cylinders, and trunks.<ref name=":12" />{{Rp|59.}}

The production of parfleche bags declined drastically when mercenaries hired by the US federal government slaughtered the [buffalo herds](/source/American_bison) to the brink of extinction. The federal government forced Indigenous peoples to relocate onto government-partitioned [reservations](/source/Indian_reservation).<ref name=":12" />{{Rp|38.}} While less visible to the colonists who were collecting them for museums, some tribes, particularly the [Nez Perce](/source/Nez_Perce) were able to continue hunting and making parfleches throughout the 20th century. The [Niisitapi](/source/Blackfoot_Confederacy) and [Lakota people](/source/Lakota_people) continue to produce parfleches today.<ref name=":12" />{{Rp|39.}}

==Etymology==
The name "parfleche" was initially used by French [fur traders](/source/North_American_fur_trade) in the region, and derives from the [French language](/source/French_language) ''parer'' meaning "to parry" or "to defend", and ''flèche'' meaning "arrow".<ref name=Lycett>{{Cite journal|last=Lycett|first=Stephen J.|date=2015|title=Differing Patterns of Material Culture Intergroup Variation on the High Plains: Quantitative Analyses of Parfleche Characteristics vs. Moccasin decoration|journal=American Antiquity|volume=80|issue=4 |pages=714–731|doi=10.7183/0002-7316.80.4.714 }}</ref>{{Rp|717.}} "Parfleche" was also used to describe tough rawhide shields, but later used primarily for these decorated rawhide containers.<ref name=Lycett/>{{Rp|717.}} Different Indigenous peoples have their own names for these versatile packages, including ''ho'sēō'o'' ([Cheyenne](/source/Cheyenne)),<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://cdkc.edu/cheyennedictionary/index-english/index.htm|title=English - Cheyenne|website=cdkc.edu|access-date=2019-05-31|archive-date=2016-09-11|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160911181328/http://cdkc.edu/cheyennedictionary/index-english/index.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref> ''bishkisché'' ([Apsáalooke](/source/Crow_Nation))<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://dictionary.crowlanguage.org/|title=Crow Dictionary|website=dictionary.crowlanguage.org|access-date=2019-05-31}}</ref>  and ''ho'úwoonó3'' ([Hinono'eino](/source/Arapaho)).<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://verbs.colorado.edu/arapaho/public/view_search|title=Arapaho Lexical Dictionary|website=verbs.colorado.edu|access-date=2019-05-31}}</ref><ref name=Morrow>{{Cite book|title=Indian rawhide: An American folk art|last=Morrow|first=Mable|publisher=University of Oklahoma Press|year=1975|location=Norman|pages=7}}</ref>{{Rp|25.}}

== Construction ==
Historically parfleches were almost exclusively made by women.<ref name=Medicine>{{Cite book|title="Women's Work: An Examination of Women's Role in Plains Indian Arts and Crafts" in The Hidden Half: Studies of Plains Indian Women| editor1= [Patricia Albers](/source/Patricia_Albers) | editor2=[Beatrice Medicine](/source/Beatrice_Medicine)|last=Schneider|first=Mary Jane|publisher=University Press of America|year=1983|location=Washington|pages=101–121}}</ref>{{Rp|101.}} Creation began with “fleshing”, or the removal of the hide from animals such as elk, deer, and most commonly [buffalo](/source/American_bison).<ref name=Morrow />{{Rp|29.}} Craftswomen employed [bone tool](/source/bone_tool)s fashioned as chisels for fleshing.<ref name=":3">{{Cite book|title=Plains Indian Painting: A description of an Aboriginal American art|last=Ewers|first=John C.|publisher=Stanford University Press|year=1939|location=Palo Alto|pages=4}}</ref> The hide was stretched by staking it above the ground, and scraped to an even thickness.<ref name=Morrow />{{Rp|29–30.}} A glutinous wash (prepared of [prickly pear cactus](/source/Opuntia) juice or [animal glue](/source/animal_glue)) was applied for protection before the moist hide was painted.<ref name=Morrow />{{Rp|32.}} Until the 1890s, natural paints were overwhelmingly used, formed using substances such as [charcoal](/source/charcoal) for black, [algae](/source/algae) for green, and yellow [ochre](/source/ochre) for red.<ref name=":12" />{{Rp|44.}} Because artists had a limited amount of time to paint the parfleche design, they had to work with boldness and expertise as revisions were not possible.<ref name=":12" />{{Rp|53.}} Once the paint was dry, the craftswomen de-haired the opposite side of the hide using a “stoning” method, and cut the outline of the parfleche using a [flint](/source/Knapping) or metal knife.<ref name=":12" />{{Rp|54.}} Lastly, the container was folded into its chosen shape and holes were cut or burned to insert ties and laces.<ref name=":12" />{{Rp|54.}}

=== Craftswomen's guilds ===
Historically, the Native women with the most talent in producing parfleches, the painted designs, and similar items, have held respected positions in their communities.<ref name=Medicine />{{Rp|101.}}<ref name=Lycett/>{{Rp|716.}} These women historically formed local [guild](/source/guild)s, choosing elders to oversee the preservation, practice and teaching of these skills to their [proteges](/source/Mentorship).<ref name=":12" />{{Rp|54.}} The guilds can also be credited with the consistency in parfleche design across multiple nations, as they preserve and pass down the customary designs, symbolism, meanings, and techniques.<ref name=":12" />{{Rp|105.}}

While parfleches have been stolen, collected, and admired as art pieces, their 19th-century creators (renowned in their own communities during their own times) have remained largely unknown to colonial anthropologists, collectors, and museum curators, and thus their names tend not to be known.<ref name=":12" />{{Rp|25.}}

==See also==
* [Plains hide painting](/source/Plains_hide_painting)

==References==
{{Reflist}}

== External links==
{{wikibooks|A Compendium of Useful Information for the Practical Man/Indian Lore/Indian Bags}}
*{{Cite web|url=http://www.nmai.si.edu/searchcollections/results.aspx?catids=1&objtypetxt=parfleche&src=1-5 |title=Images of parfleche in the Smithsonian's collections |publisher=National Museum of the American Indian |access-date=September 8, 2010}}

{{Bags}}

Category:Bags
Category:Indigenous culture of the Great Plains
Category:Indigenous culture of the Plateau
Category:Leather goods

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Parfleche](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parfleche) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parfleche?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.