thread and sinew-sewn red trade wool designed with floral elements; tabs dotted with pink glass beads

overall length 25 inches x width 9 inches

This bag... is known today as an octopus bag because of the four pairs of long tabs at the bottom.  In the nineteenth century, such bags were called fire bags since they were used to store flint, steel, and tinder.  The bag style apparently originated around the Canadian side of the Great Lakes and was probably developed by the mixed-blood Metis...

The style spread across the continent.  Late nineteenth century photographs show the octopus bag in use among the Tlingits on the Pacific.  It also enjoyed favor as far north as the Subarctic.  This example, with its asymmetrical beaded design, was probably made around the Great Slave Lake by a Slavey woman about 1900 (Hanson 1994: 259).

Published:
Spirits in the Art (Hanson 1994: 259, plate 268)