Diné (Navajo) Leather Medicine Bag with Embellishments [SOLD]

Leather bags or pouches such as this are used by Medicine men, or other Diné, for carrying medicines or fetishes or whatever one wishes to carry in them. Soldier's ammunition pouches were possibly the prototype for this style of shoulder bag.

The strap is embellished with 45 buttons, most made from U. S. quarters, and two rectangular silver and turquoise buttons.  The earliest dated U. S. quarter is 1899 and the latest dated one is 1942.  Since the latest U. S. coin is dated 1942, it is assumed that the medicine bag was made around that time.

The bag itself features a "sheriff badge" style button on the flap with turquoise cabs at each point and there are four Navajo-made silver buttons at the base of the flap.

Condition:  The bag is in excellent condition with the normal patina one would expect on leather of this age.

Provenance: from the collection of the Balcomb family

Recommended Reading: North American Indian Jewelry and Adornment from Prehistory to the Present by Lois Sherr Dubin