Colorful glass Beads woven together by brown string

Beads are woven together in a loom style construction.

There is an animal image on the front of the bag surrounded by geometric forms that create a pattern. The animal appears to be in a black J-shaped enclosure. To the left of the animal there is a geometric form that has a square connected by two triangles that have three beaded throngs coming out of it.

It is mostly produced of loomed beads but is bound by a string on the top of the purse. The front is decorated with a deep blue background adorned with the ambiguous, rouge figure of an animal, with bulging ribs and horns, which can be attributed to an underwater panther because of the unusual black encasement that surrounds the figure. Its prominence in design alludes to the specialness of the character in the Ojibwa religion. Above the panther is depicted a pink bird which is reminiscent of a thunderbird. To the left of the panther is a curious geometric configuration of a rectangle flanked by two triangles with three prong extensions. Their red, black, yellow, and pink colorings compliments the rest of the picture. Its complicated design matches the ambiguous spider-like figures that are paired above the black cage of the panther. On the back of the purse there is a striking geometric design of two red and blue diamonds that are surrounded by extending white lines. These lines compliment the white ambiguity of the spider-like shape on the other side. Flanking the white design are two vertical rows of color-alternating diamonds of red black and red yellow.
Though the geometric motif on bags like these have generally been regarded to as purely decorative, having no meaning or significance, Ruth Phillips has compared them with the figures of the manitos on other panel bags and discovered that they often resemble stylized segments of the Thunderbirds and Underwater Panthers. The diagonal lines edged with triangles resemble the feathers of the great bird figures, and the vertical diamonds look like their bodies. The zig-zag lines are similar to the snake and lightning figures in the mystic depictions and parallels can be seen in other forms. They all possess meaning, some of which may be intelligible only from esoteric world of personal dreams. This is symbolic of the relationship between the sacred and the Ojibwa (Whiteford, 1991). Thunderbirds are usually shown with zigzag lines, which represent the thunder bursting from them and the lightning that they generate. The Underwater Panthers on the hand are recognizable through its long tail that typically wraps around its body, further expressing its movement. Some bags show the Thunderbird and the Underwater Panther on one side and a geometric design on the reverse side to express the energy and power that emanated from the supernatural beings (Hartman, 1988).

Date attributed by the Pomona College Museum College of Art

Displayed in the 1979 exhibition of the Pomona Museum of Art's Native American Art in the Permanent Collection

Description published in exhibition catalog