Peyote Box
Niuam (Comanche)
Ka'igwu (Kiowa)
Plains
about 1940
Leather, paint, brass, metal, thread
Overall: 4 5/16 × 16 × 4 3/4 in. (11 × 40.7 × 12 cm)
Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth: Purchased through the Acquisition and Preservation of Native American Art Fund and the Hood Museum of Art Acquisitions Fund
2009.32
Geography
Place Made: United States, North America
Period
20th century
Object Name
Personal Gear: Box
Research Area
Native American
Not on view
Course History
ANTH 32, AMES 26, Anthropology of Tibet and the Himalayas, Sienna Craig, Spring 2013
REL 1, Patterns of Religious Experience, Elizabeth Perez, Fall 2013
WRIT 7 , Religion and Literature: Re-visioning the Natural, Nancy Crumbine, Spring 2015
Exhibition History
Native American Art at Dartmouth: Highlights from the Hood Museum of Art, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, October 8, 2011-March 12, 2012.
This hand-tooled leather box is used to protect items—feathers, peyote buttons, rattles, and such—that are used in the Peyote Ceremony or other Native American Church practices. It is decorated with meaningful symbols of the church, such as the water drum on the left, the tipi, the Peyote Bird on the right, and the American flag on top. A tribal legend tells us that a woman and her child were once lost in severe weather and growing weaker by the moment, when a voice told the woman to gather and eat a certain herb for strength and energy. She did as she was told and, while reviving, heard the voice give further instructions. When they found their camp again, the woman related her experience to a male relative. It is said that this is the beginning of the Peyote Ceremony in the Southern Plains. George Horse Capture
Publication History
George P. Horse Capture, Sr., Joe D. Horse Capture, Joseph M. Sanchez, et al., Native American Art at Dartmouth: Hightlights from the Hood Museum of Art, Hanover: Trustees of Dartmouth College, 2011,ill. p. 36 and 108 and p. 168, no. 122.
Provenance
Richard A. Pohrt, Jr., Fine American Indian Art, Ann Arbor, Michigan; sold to present collection, 2009.
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