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Purses & BagsThe Plains Indians were a highly mobile people who followed the path of the bison. All of their possessions from their tipis and bedding to their cookery had to be packed up and moved by horse from camp to camp. To carry their belongings, Indian women created bags and cases of various sizes and shapes out of buckskin and rawhide. These items were highly utilitarian in design, but they were also decorated with care and purpose by their owners. Bags were beaded and fringed, and feathers, claws and hooves were often incorporated into the decorations. Some storage bags were fashioned from hides that had been wood-smoked to keep the leather supple and give it a golden hue. Others were shaped from wet rawhide and then dried into rigid, box-like storage containers called parfleche.  This tradition of creating highly functional, yet beautiful, purses and bags continued even after the Indians were put onto reservations. In fact, many Native Americans sewed ration bags-small decorated purses designed specifically to carry the ration tickets that Indians needed to collect their monthly allotment of meat, flour and salt from the government.
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