One of the earliest forms of tobacco bag, these were often made from the complete hides of unborn deer and antelope taken during the spring hunts. George Catlin (1796-1873) portrays several types of these bags in his portfolio in the Ethnographic Section of the British Museum in London, which at one time were in his personal collection. (See Ewers, 1979, Plate No. 13.)

The Reverend Samuel Pond, who worked among the Eastern Sioux in 1834, described their use, "When hunting or traveling, each man carried with him a bag made of the skin of a mink, skunk, or some other small animal, tanned with the hair on. These skins were taken off entire, with the head, feet and tail attached to them, the carcass being out through a hole in the throat, and the aperture thus made served for the mouth of the bag...In it were carried the pipe and tobacco, the touchwood, flint, and fire steel." (See Pond, 1909, p.152 and Pond, 1908)

Similar examples are in the collections of the Plains Indian Museum in Browning, Montana, the Glenbow Museum in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, and one collected by Prince Maximilian in 1833-34 currently in the Linden Museum in Stuttgart, Germany.