[NATIVE AMERICAN] c. 1950 Beaded Hide Bag with American Flag and Peyote Waterbird 

A striking elongated hide bag, its body densely worked in glass beads against a brilliant turquoise-blue ground. One face bears a stylized peyote waterbird in black, with outspread wings, an extended neck, and white accents at the feet and tail; a small red-and-green device marks its breast. The opposite face displays an American flag suspended from a slender staff, its red-and-white stripes and dark blue canton carefully articulated in beadwork. Multicolored zigzag bands frame the principal designs above and below, while smaller geometric devices ornament the side. The exposed tawny hide neck is edged with white beads and fitted with a hide drawstring threaded through vertical slits. A long fringe of red, white, and dark blue beads extends the patriotic palette below the bag.

The waterbird belongs to the central imagery of the Native American Church, whose religious and artistic traditions developed through extensive exchange among Native communities. Emerging in its modern form in the Southern Plains during the late nineteenth century, the peyote religion spread widely through intertribal networks before the incorporation of the Native American Church of Oklahoma in 1918. Its associated arts encompass beadwork, metalwork, painting, and decorated containers, with the waterbird appearing across these varied media as a recognizable expression of religious affiliation.

The pairing of the waterbird and American flag is particularly noteworthy. Patriotic imagery appears on documented Native American Church objects alongside religious emblems, sometimes expressing military service and personal or communal identification with the United States. A closely contemporary parallel is a circa 1954 peyote box by the Ponca artist Gus Mac Donald, now in the Milwaukee Public Museum, which likewise incorporates both the American flag and a waterbird.