Amulet and pouch

Museum number:

2-5630a,b

Permalink:

ark:/21549/hm21025630a@2cb

Alternate number:

3859 (original number)

Accession number:

Acc.13 and Acc.88

Description:

In buckskin pouch; ("Buffalo Stone"); fringed; string carrying cord; geometric bead designs in black/white/blue/yellow. Amulet: section of fossil cephalophod.

Donor:

John Preston Stanley, Philip Mills Jones, and Phoebe Apperson Hearst

Collection place:

Great Plains, North America

Verbatim coll. place:

; Great Plains

Culture or time period:

Piegan

Collector:

J. Disbury and Philip Mills Jones

Collection date:

1903

Taxon:

Bison bison

Object type:

ethnography

Object class:

Amulets

Function:

5.2 Magic: Objects Associated with Practices reflecting confidence in the ability to manipulate supernatural agencies

Accession date:

1903 and August 1901

Context of use:

One of the most common items in medicine bundles; these objects taught songs to their finders; giving them power to call the buffalo; the small fossils, the "little buffalos", were believed to have the power to grow while in the medicine bundles.

Department:

Native US and Canada (except California)

Dimensions:

diameter 5 centimeters

Comment:

Exhibited: UCLMA, Plains Indians, 1971.

Loans:

S1964-1965 #18: Merritt College/Helen Creagh (October 12, 1964–October 14, 1964)

Legacy documentation: