Storage Bag
Unknown Artist
late 1800s
Medium
Native-tanned hide, glass beads, dyed horsehair, tin cones, sinew thread
Dimensions
w. 38.8 cm, l. 59.7 cm
Classification
Leather
Department
Textiles
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Credit
Gift of Amelia Elizabeth White
Accession Number
1937.850
About this artwork
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.