Comanche Parfleche

[DavidS]

Thank you you are awesome tree. From etymology then is the parfleche derived from a buckler? Thats the short shield about the size of a coffe table book, that straps to the fore arm

Parfleche just refers to the rawhide material used to make the bag. I’m actually soon going to make a Spanish Adarga, a double layered rawhide shield.

 

[Skittlebisquit]

It was the patterns i got turned on by, for weaving cordage on handles

 

[Skittlebisquit]

It was the patterns i got turned on by, for weaving cordage on handles

 

[Yeshuasdaughter]

I am so impressed. That is really beautiful artisanship.

Are you native? My daughter is Blackfeet. She's not a tribal member, but I've always taken her to pow wows and when she was younger we'd go to culture nights, where she'd do crafts. I am white, but some kind Chinook elder women taught me to make regalia and I sewed her a beautiful dress when she was younger. They didn't look down on me or treat me any different. They just said that I need to know this so that I can pass it to my daughter.

I have a story about two tribes. I had a best friend from high school, and she's Assiniboine and my husband was Blackfeet. Neither he nor I knew that the Assiniboine Crow had a rivalry with the Blackfeet. She came to my house and met him for the first time. Smiled and asked if he was native.

They had a nice conversation, lots of laughter. Then she asks what tribe he was from. He said Blackfeet. Then all of a sudden her face became ashen and hatred burned in her eyes like fire. She said in a flat tone "The Crow Hate The Blackfeet." After that, she treated him with disdain and disgust to the point where we didn't have her over anymore. He was just a gamer guy raised in Central CA as a city kid who knew nothing of his tribe, and she's from Los Angeles, and a total city girl hipster, although her father was a drum keeper.

It's sad how old betrayals way back in history, by people no one ever met, can create such rivalries. I think most of the wars in the world are caused by people still mad over things that happened before they were born. As parents, we are very guilty of teaching our kids to hate a group of people because we were taught to hate them too.