This Bandolier or shoulder bag is characteristic of Ojibwe material culture. Bags like these are usually worn by men, with the strap on one shoulder and pouch resting on the opposite hip. Each bandolier can take up to one year to create, but every Ojibwe male owned one to wear for proper dress occasions.

This bag is part of the Monroe Killy collection. Killy, a Minnesota native, started his lifelong collecting of American Indian objects at age 19. His interests are wide-ranging, including North American tribes, photography, and archaeology. He is active in the Minnesota Archaeology Society, which he helped found in1936. Well-documented and comprehensive collections like Monroe Killy’s are hard to come by, and I appreciate his forethought in gathering these pieces.
Tilly Laskey, Curator of Ethnology