Made with plaid cotton, red cotton trim?, leather, flour sack, cotton thread?

Plaid bag, top-stitched with red trim and lined with flour sack. Outer edge trimmed with leather.

Cath Oberholtzer notes the importance that moss bags had for Cree mothers and their children. Directly after birth, the baby would be placed inside a moss bag, and then placed in a tikanagan (cradleboard), which supported the baby and allowed the mother to carry the child around. The moss bag would be filled with sphagnum moss, which functioned as an absorbent material. Oberholtzer observes, ‘Essentially an external womb, the moss bag and its tikanagan counterpart allow for direct physical intervention.” (Oberholtzer 267). The moss bag was used to keep the baby secure, clean and comfortable in their environment while they observed and learned from the life around them. When the mother did not have the tikanagan strapped to her back, the cradle might be leaned against a tree in order for the baby to observe the world and for the mother to keep an eye on the child (Oberholtzer 271).

Cath Oberholtzer, "Material Culture of the Mistassini Cree: Local Expression or Regional Style?" Papers of the Thirty-sixth Algonquian Conference. Christoph Wolfart, editor. Winnipeg: University of Manitoba, 312.

Record created as part of practicum fall 2008.