The traditional Native American women were masters at creating beautiful clothing for themselves and families. They decorated almost everything they made with beads, dyes from plants and roots, porcupine quills, bone pieces, animal teeth, pine needles, and other natural materials. They were very creative and artistic. For keeping their sewing articles, beads and other supplies handy and safe, they also made beautifully ornamented bags and pouches.
These bags and pouches came in handy for not just sewing supplies, but for many uses. Medicine pouches for the medicine man or woman; totem bags for sacred items of an individual; quivers for arrows; sheaths for knives; bags to carry fire starter materials such as flint and tinder; and many other uses.
The bags were made with shoulder straps, such as the Octopus Bag, or draw strings and sometimes with flaps and ties to attach to a belt. These bags were a critical part of their apparel for they were needed to keep like items in one place, always handy when needed. Sometimes a woman's belt held several bags for all the items she would need during the day. Along with a shoulder bag for collecting herbs and roots. The belt bags were indispensable and left her hands free for working.
Probably the most important bags (or cases) were the ones women made to hold their awl, one for their knife and one for the fire starter, usually called Strike A Light Bag. The awl was used for all sewing, to punch holes in hides and the knife was used for cutting the sinew, scraping hides, cutting herbs and roots and cooking. The awl case was cone shaped with ties to attach to the belt and was usually beautifully beaded over the entire surface. The sheath was made to fit the woman's favorite knife with a flap to hook over the belt and fasten with ties. In most cases, each woman fully beaded all her bags in her own design, which was kind of like her signature. Everyone knew to whom the bags belonged by looking at the beading.
In the eastern woodlands region, the Bandolier Bag was an important part of the well dressed man's apparel. Sometimes the men would wear two of these bags, with the straps crossed over their chest. The bandolier bag is a large one with wide shoulder straps. It was made from animal hide or trade cloth and often elaborately decorated with beadwork. This was pride of ownership, for they were often presented to represent the honors of a worthy man. Owning two bags was a sign of wealth and prestige. They were used as utilitarian carrying bags. The popularity of these bags spread to other tribes across the plains.
A Medicine Bag is a container for various items of supernatural powers, thus were used by a medicine man or woman, or shaman. The medicine bag was considered to have it's own special powers aside from the sacred items of powers it held. These items, and their unique design of decoration, were often received during a vision quest, which involved personal sacrifice (such as fasting and staying awake), and prayer over several days of isolation from others.
One of the most unique bags was called an Octopus Bag. This bag was worn for special occasions by tribal men, around the neck and shoulders. They were used throughout most of the areas from the Great Lakes to Alaska and Canada. It is of rectangular shape with a shoulder strap and four flaps at the bottom which resemble the tentacles of an octopus. They are beautifully beaded with tribal colors and designs.
The most important bag for any tribe, was the Pipe Bag, or Tobacco Bag. It is a sacred item for all tribes, yet styles and sizes varied. There are certain elements, however, regardless of which tribe you find them in. They have a long neck, a rim which was often beaded or quilled, a pouch, which was also beaded or quilled and a fringe at the bottom. The Pipe Bag, in each tribe, is held in a sacred place by the Pipe Carrier, which was an honored and respected elder. When needed for a ceremony, the Pipe Carrier would respectfully take it to the ceremonial gathering and present it to the Chief or Shaman.
This image of a beautifully decorated Sioux Pipe Bag, ca. 1870, is in the Public Domain and was retrieved from
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Sioux_Quilled_Tobacco_Bag.JPG
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Prairie Edge Trading Co
Possible Bags and Pouches
