Butterfly Dreams Tote Bag

For the Blackfeet people, butterflies bring good dreams. In his Butterfly Dreams Tote Bag, Blackfeet/Piikani artist and Inspired Natives Collaborator® John Isaiah Pepion has taken a classic Blackfeet butterfly design and set it free to fly across our modern tote bag. 

John drew inspiration from the rawhide parfleche designs of the Plains Indians. Traditional parfleche are beautifully-embellished rawhide containers, decorated by painting, incising, or both. This unique tote bag is a modern tribute to the parfleche rawhide cases and cylinders that the Plains Indians have used for centuries to carry their personal belongings, perfect for the everyday traveler.

• 100% cotton
• 18.5 in W x 12.5 in H x 7.5"D / 46.99 cm W x 30.48 cm H x 19.05 cm D
• Main compartment opens up 7.5 in wide
• Main compartment has a brass snap closure
• Interior pocket has a zipper closure; 7.75 in W x 8 in H / 19.05 cm H x 20.32 cm D
• Imported

Thank you for supporting Inspired Natives®, not "Native-inspired."

Cultural Context:

A parfleche is a container made of rawhide, historically created by Plains, Plateau, and Great Basin women artists. Today, parfleches are made by both men and women, and can be everyday items as well as ceremonial. Parfleche are often highly decorated with geometric designs. Traditional parfleche artists used natural pigments such as charcoal, algae, and ochre.

This example is a parfleche box John made. It is crafted from buffalo rawhide, and John used traditional natural earth pigment to paint the “butterfly” design.