The Collaborative International Dictionary
Parfleche \Par*fleche"\, n. [Prob. through Canadian F. fr. Amer. Indian.] A kind of rawhide consisting of hide, esp. of the buffalo, which has been soaked in crude wood-ash lye to remove the hairs, and then dried.
Wiktionary
n. 1 (context US English) A form of stiff leather made from rawhide 2 (context US English) A shield, bag or other item made from this material
Wikipedia
A parfleche is a Native American rawhide bag, typically used for holding dried meats and pemmican.
The word was originally used by French fur traders (it was not a word used by the Native Americans). It derives from the French "parer" meaning "parry" or "defend", and "flèche" meaning "arrow", so called because the hide was tough enough to be used as a shield.
The original bags had graphics that were actually maps, general geographical depictions of the surrounding land. The river as a circle of life and mountains were the most common features.
Usage examples of "parfleche".
Ayla opened a small parfleche, a carrying case made of stiff rawhide, in which she had packed food for them, some dried meat that she thought was aurochs, and a small basket of dried blueberries and little tart plums.
He went into the back of the shop and came out with a parfleche bag, very old and stained, with discolored fringe all around it and a hole in it.
Why not have a similar parfleche made that people can touch, so that they have a tactile idea of how one feels?
Mandelas and dream catchers, a parfleche bag and a medicine shield adorned one dark-paneled wall.
It took but a moment to open the proper parfleche and remove his extra leggins, which he immediately carried to his new companion.
His jerked venison, pemmican, and the other food Winona had packed for him were all in a parfleche on Pegasus.
Elated, he leaned on a parfleche in front of him, but only for a heartbeat.
He could see the remains of beaded moccasins on the twisted feet, next to a painted parfleche and some tattered feathers.
Ayla reached for the parfleche to pack it, but something caught her eye.
One corner of the parfleche had been torn out by teeth and claws, one sausage broken into, but the cairn had stood.
The cooked bison roast and tongue from their meal were put into a rawhide parfleche in which she stored food.
He was erecting the tripod of poles from which the parfleche full of meat would be suspended.
With a whispery rumble the heavy curtain rose, and like a dawn the blaze of footlights rose upon the vivid display of colors: quillwork, painted parfleche, furs, beads, carved wood, dyed feathers, polished horn and shell, silver and copper.
Fat Legs had with him about forty of the proudest warriors of his own town, and several women came carrying bags of maize and bundles of fine furs and some parfleche bags containing pipe-smoking mixtures, decorated feathers, strings of the beautiful blue beads the Children of First Man still knew how to make after hundreds of years, and quantities of clay-dye powders.
Wrapped in brown paper or in a parfleche, stashed in a trunk, forgotten in a closet in one of the little houses scattered about the reservation.