Cleveland Museum of Art

Storage Bag

Date

late 1800s

Medium

Native-tanned hide, glass beads, dyed horsehair, tin cones, sinew thread

Culture

Native North America, Plains, Lakota (Sioux)

Department

Textiles

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

Rectangular bags made of soft hide—known among early white traders as “possible bags” because they could hold “anything possible”—were used to store personal items inside the tipi, where they doubled as pillows. When encampments moved, the bags were carried on the side of a saddle, where their decoration could be admired. Bags like this were used to store personal items inside the tipi, where they doubled as pillows.

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