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Pocket change – Salish artists crafting beaded pouches to hold commemorative Lewis and Clark silver dollars

The U.S. Mint has put 30 Salish craftsmen of the Flathead Indian Reservation to work this fall, tanning, sewing and beading leather medicine pouches much as Indians did some 200 years ago, when the Lewis and Clark Expedition came through western Montana.

By JOHN STROMNES of the Missoulian

The tribal artists are to provide 7,500 beaded pouches over the next 12 months or so. Like the medicine pouches of old, these will contain good medicine – specially minted silver dollars authorized by Congress to commemorate the Lewis and Clark Expedition of 1803-06.

Congress authorized 500,000 of the Lewis and Clark Bicentennial silver dollar coins to be produced. But only 50,000 of them will come in traditional medicine pouches made of brain-tanned buckskin with certificates of authenticity individually signed by each tribal artist.

The Salish pouches sport one of two bead designs popular in Salish tradition. The remainder of the 50,000 pouches are being made by craftspeople from other tribes across the West that came in contact with the famous voyage of discovery.

Marie Torosian, education director for the People’s Center, tribal museum, gallery and gift shop operated by the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes in Pablo, said the bead patterns are traditional motifs but original designs. One is a floral design, the other geometric. The designs were selected from several submitted to the Bicentennial Commission by the People’s Center for consideration, she said. The winning designs are by contemporary Salish beadworkers Germaine White and Lucy Vanderburg.

Two weeks ago, the first kits of beads and local brain-tanned buckskin and lacing were distributed to the 30 or so artists who will sew and bead the final products. Torosian said each Salish beadworker receives $20 a pouch. Each one takes an experienced beadworker less than an hour to produce, and each is inspected for quality of craftsmanship before it is accepted.

The pouches will be packaged in boxes of 500, with a signed certificate of authenticity attached to each one, and sent in secure mail to the U.S. Mint in Washington, where each pouch will be vested with a commemorative silver dollar. The coins and products will be sold by the Mint to collectors all over the world.

The idea for the limited-edition pouches originated with the U.S. Mint, which approached the Circle of Tribal Advisers of the Bicentennial Commission with the idea as a means of helping the Lewis and Clark Bicentennial program, said Martha Watson, a Mint spokeswoman.

The pouches and contents may go on sale as early as next May. The price has not been determined.

In the enabling legislation, passed in 1999, Congress provides that each of the commemorative dollars must weigh 26.73 grams, have a diameter of 1.5 inches, contain 90 percent silver and 10 percent copper, and can be used for legal tender. It makes no mention of the medicine pouches. The coins may be minted only during calendar year 2004 at no net cost to the U.S. government.

Torosian said a grant associated with the program will pay for a Salish language immersion school for tribal members scheduled to begin at the end of September at the People’s Center.

During the language immersion program, participants will learn to tan hides the traditional Salish way, Torosian said.

Tribal language revitalization and cultural resource protection are stated aims of the program, according to the certificate of authenticity.

There are 114 North American Indian tribes represented by 54 existing tribal governments involved in the bicentennial observance, all of whose homelands Lewis and Clark explored 200 years ago.

John Stromnes can be reached at 1-800-366-7816 or at [email protected]

http://missoulian.com/articles/2003/09/18/news/mtregional/znews08.txt

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