Family heirlooms

[BigKlavey]

Hi, I'm new to the group, so thanks for allowing me to be a part.
I have several items that have been passed down from my father that I'm curious as to their probable origin and if possible, a value. To better understand, allow me to provide some history. My father was born in Golden Valley, ND and at the age of 5, traveled with his family by covered wagon to Maryland bringing along the two (2) items I will discuss later. There was a verbal history that somewhere on my paternal grandmothers side of the family, a family member supposedly married an Indian maiden named Squawking Bush and that this was the origin of the family obtaining these items.
The first item is a Beaded Buckskin bag, roughly 7 1/4" long and 4 1/2" wide as can be seen in the first 3 pictures.








The second item is a Stone Tomahawk head, roughly 4 7/8" long, 4" wide (at it's widest point), and 1 3/4" thick (at it's thickest point)








Any information on these items would be appreciated.
Thanks
BigKlavey

[SDhunter]

Welcome BigKlavey.  Vey excited to see your finds,  and sorry about the troubles.

[gregszybala]

Hope to see these artifacts but your story is extremely confusing.

[chase]

Without pic's it will be hard to say what you have But I did see a pouch about that size that was a kit for making  metal arrowheads it held sinew metal points a small file . Not sure that helps. and is speculation on my part. But the beads would suggest it.
Oh and Welcome to AH.com  :welcome:

[hudson]

:welcome:  from east Texas

[orari]

gregszybala wrote:

Hope to see these artifacts but your story is extremely confusing.

  Yes.  I never heard of anyone taking a covered wagon east????????????

[BigKlavey]

Photos have now been loaded.
As to the story, I know it sounds strange coming east from North Dakota, but that's exactly what happened.


Admin comment: have brought your pics up to full size and positioned them. After you have uplaoded them but before you click "Submit", if you position the cursor where you want a picture to be and click "Insert", that does the trick.

[clovisoid]

Any idea where the family came from before they went to the Dakotas?  Not disputing the oral history, but the items appear to be much more typical of the Great Lakes region (or even further east) than the Dakotas.
The axe head is quite old, prehistoric.  That style wasn't used by any modern tribe when your family was in the Dakotas.
The bag is really nice.  Those metallic sheen faceted beads are probably Czech, they are quite different than anything I've seen used in the Dakotas when groups there were marking beaded items.  (I could be wrong, but it isn't any of the common styles that I recognize.)  It vaguely looks like some of the Iroquois stuff I've seen from Canada -and- New York.
Worth finding some bead experts (which I am not) as they could probably pin it down for you.

[BigKlavey]

Thanks for the help I've received thus far.  It's more than I've found in the past 20 plus years.  I will do more digging into that side of the family and see what I can find out.
Thanks again!