Chiricahua Apache saddlebag; rawhide, cloth, seeds. turquoise; l. (unfolded, incl. fringes) 96 cm., w. 20 cm.; ca. 1880.<BR> This bag, probably collected in June/July 1883 at San Carlos, Arizona, has red and black cloth under parts of the overlay. Many of the fringes have beads made from red seeds, probably either mescal beans (Sophora secundiflora) or coral beans (Erythrina flabelliformis). One turquoise bead is also present. Merrill (1977:72) notes a similar specimen, also identified as Chiricahua. The small size and relatively elaborate decoration are consistent with miniature saddlebags made as toys for children (Ferg 1987:160-161).<BR> One of the strengths of Ten Kate's Apache collection is his having collected four rawhide saddlebags, one each from the White Mountain Apaches, Chiricahuas, Mescaleros, and an Apache-made saddlebag from Navajos in New Mexico. Saddlebags made by many groups consist of a flat, elongate "envelope" with fringe on the short edges, folded in half across the rump of a horse, or over one's arm or shoulder. Saddlebags made by Plains groups generally have a slit opening along the folded edge of one of long edges, while saddlebags made by the Western Apaches and Chiricahuas have a longitudinal slit in the center of the top face of the "envelope" (Ferg 1987:fig. 5.48 and 8.11). This distinctive construction appears to be peculiar to these two groups, at least in the Southwest, but Feest (2006:78,96-97) has pointed out their similarity to slit pouches used by various tribes in the eastern U.S., and suggested that both may be derived from European predecessors, with Spaniards, of course, being the most probable source to have introduced the form to Apaches. There are a few virtually identical bags in various collections attributed to Mescalero and Jicarilla Apaches, but research to date has not precluded the possibility that they were received in trade from Chiricahuas or Western Apaches. Mescaleros and Jicarillas more typically made rawhide parflèches. Navajos apparently did not make such saddlebags, although the construction of jish bags, made by medicine men to carry their paraphernalia, appears identical (Franciscan Fathers 1910:382; Frisbie 1987:fig. 4,7,10,13b; Kluckhohn et al. 1971:333-336). The saddlebags collected by Ten Kate from Mescaleros and Navajos in New Mexico possess no attributes that distinguish them from known Chiricahua and Western Apache saddlebags, and we suggest that those are probably the groups that actually made those bags. We know that various items made by Apaches in Arizona got traded long distances, including a beautiful Western Apache or Chiricahua rawhide saddlebag collected at the Sioux Agency in 1888 (Vincent et al. 2000:246).<BR> All four of Ten Kate's saddlebags are made of a folded piece of rawhide for the body, with panels of rawhide overlay with elaborate geometric designs cut out of them. There may be a piece of red, black or blue cloth under the overlay to accentuate the cut-out designs. Rawhide corner tabs are serrated and sometimes perforated. Fringes are rawhide or buckskin. Assembly of nineteenth-century bags was usually done with sinew or buckskin thongs.<BR> Ten Kate scorned romantic novelists' notions of the Apaches possessing splendid horses, and was unimpressed by the animals he observed at San Carlos. They were of small but robust stature, bred for physical endurance, and appeared poorly cared for. Riders seemed to have little regard for their mounts and often rode them to death on raiding expeditions when spare animals were also taken along, making them move swiftly over large distances. Ten Kate did not think the Apaches were very good riders, and remarked that their wooden stirrups were short and thus rode with their knees drawn up. Ten Kate found the riding style of the Apaches inelegant, with their trunks and heads in perpetual motion, and their arms flapping up and down their bodies.<BR> <BR> <BR> <BR> <BR>