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Tobacco Bag

ca. 1845
Not on view
Returned to lender
This work of art was on loan to the museum and has since been returned to its lender.
A female artist created this bag, used to hold tobacco and sometimes a pipe and a stem. An important man would have carried it on formal occasions. Lakota people called such bags cantohuja, container for the heart, in reference to the sacredness of the pipe. Until the 1850s, when smaller and more variously colored seed beads became the preferred medium, simple designs in blue, white, and black pony beads embellished these bags, which were produced throughout the north-central Plains.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Tobacco Bag
  • Date: ca. 1845
  • Geography: United States, Central Plains
  • Culture: Central Plains
  • Medium: Native tanned leather, glass beads, metal cones, wool
  • Dimensions: Length: 25 in. (63.5 cm) excluding lappets
  • Classifications: Hide-Containers, Beads
  • Credit Line: National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., Department of Anthropology (E8353)
  • Curatorial Department: The Michael C. Rockefeller Wing