Last Crusade Belt Question

[sjo10]

Apologies if this has been previously posted, but does anyone know of the belt River Phoenix wore with his scout uniform during the opening of Last Crusade? It appears to be Native American in design. Thanks!

[Canyon]

Hello and welcome to the forum!

Young Indy's belt was descried as a Hopi woven belt in the Last Crusade novelization.

https://www.google.com/search?q=hopi+wo ... e&ie=UTF-8" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Nosirrah]

That's an interesting question!
Given the locale, Hopi is a good possibility, as is Navajo. Both were masters of textiles, creating brilliant colors and bold patterns.
I've looked closely at several screen-caps, and it appears that there was no buckle- the ends were finished with rawhide thongs. The entire belt could not have been woven on a rawhide warp, though- the pattern would be much coarser, more like a wampum belt. So it looks like a modified "dance sash," where the rawhide was added at the ends only.
I'm no expert, but the symbols appear to include a version of "butterfly" which signifies everlasting life.

You can check out the online catalog of the National Museum of the American Indian collection of such things here:
https://e-humanity.org/#page=1&query=||||Sash/Belt
I didn't see any close matches with young Indy's sash/belt, however.
I've got a couple of sash belts I picked up in Chichicastenango (Guatemala) many years ago. The motifs and colors are very different, but the construction is practically identical. Back-strap loom stuff is all pretty similar. Used one as a camera strap for years-- the boiled wool wears like iron.
Like Canyon said, welcome!

[Indiana Jeff]

As pointed out by Canyon in the link she provided, there are lots of close enough options available online.


Regards,

Indiana Jeff

[Nosirrah]

Thanks for getting this back on track, Jeff. I digress too easily.
Play around with Google searches with various combinations of Hopi, Navajo, belt, sash. Most of the results were not finished with a conventional buckle, which is good. Usually the ends are simply braided into long thongs.
As I said, the screen caps look like young Indy's belt had rawhide thongs added instead. It's the difference between a sash that just cinches in your tunic (traditional style) versus a belt that has to hold up your pants.

[Indiana Jeff]

Thanks for getting this back on track, Jeff. I digress too easily.

Not at all, I enjoy the additional insight and academic experience you often bring to our discussions here.

Regards,

Indiana Jeff

[Liberance]

Refloating this thread (hope that's alright) in case there's some renewed interest in this item, which just caught my eye during my most recent rewatch of The Last Crusade.

I've been using the links and advice above to look for something that feels similar to what Indy is wearing but... they're just not close enough. Let alone exact matches, which is the sort of thing we collect around here. I've also never seen anyone ever looking for this belt, even though it seems like the most obvious object to represent Young Indy in a Crusade collection (besides being quite nice looking, it seems like a unique element of his Scout uniform, and he uses it to carry the Cross of Coronado).

Is it really not possible to find? Does anybody here have one?