2004
Identifying & explaining
Trimble Gilbert: What kind of skin is it [body of bag], mink?
Eliza Jones: Faded mink, yes, but it’s kind of reddish. You know some of those minks, they get really red if they’re out in the sun a lot. They get faded, and they bleach.
Trimble Gilbert: Yes, that’s right.
Eliza Jones: Okay, so this is . . . “mink” is taahgoodze.
Judy Woods: Yes, taahjoodze [mink].
Trimble Gilbert: Chihdzuu [mink].
Phillip Arrow: Tixgedr [mink].
Eliza Jones: This strap is moose hide, tanned moose hide.
And this [red edging along opening] is old-time—I’ve seen a lot of trail bags that they used to have it. You had this kind of cloth, the old-time cloth.
Trimble Gilbert: Yes.
Eliza Jones: This is linen thread. I remember there used to be really good strong linen threads long ago. It’s hard to find.
Trimble Gilbert: It has nice beads [fringe].
Eliza Jones: Let’s see, these beads are called naagguye [trade beads]. What other word do you have besides yoo’yoo’ [beads]?
Judy Woods: That’s yoo’yoo’ [beads]—I mean naagguye [trade beads].
Trimble Gilbert: Naagąįį [beads].
Aron Crowell: What would go inside there?
Eliza Jones: Lots of things.
Trimble Gilbert: You carry stuff in it.
Eliza Jones: They would carry valuables in this kind of thing, no junk.
Trade beads
Eliza Jones: I just wanted to say a little bit about trade beads. You know these were really valuable I guess, a long time ago. And this one lady told a story about when she was a child. She said, when she was really little her grandmother died. She said, all of a sudden her grandmother was gone. She didn’t know what happened to her grandmother. And she was playing in the woods one day, it was late in the fall, and she was walking around in the woods and came to grandma. Grandma was in a soos [cone-shaped grave], a traditional grave around a tree. Grandma was hidden inside there. So she went in there. Grandma was sitting up and around her was her beads. So she picked some up, and she came home with them. And she said she didn’t tell her parents where she was or what she saw or anything. And that night they went to bed, and then she started playing with these beads, and it was making noise.
And her parents got all excited, and they lit the lamp. And they said, “What are you playing with?” And she said, “Oh, this naagguye [trade beads].” “Where you get those?” She said, “Oh, I borrowed them from grandma.” Oh, they were so upset with her. So the next day they had to go back and return the beads and give food and talk to grandma, say she didn’t mean to take them, she’s just a little kid.
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