Moose skin bag made by Prisque Winlatto for her son Vital Thomas
This bag is made from calf moose skin, sewn with sinew and lined with cotton fabric. A smoked, tanned moose hide collar holds a drawstring to pull the bag shut. This kind of bag is often called a meat bag as it was used to carry dry meat to eat while travelling and working on the land.
Vital Thomas was born in 1904. When Vital was six or seven years old he went to residential school. He stayed at school for seven years, never going home for a visit. He is remembered as one of the first from his area to go away to school. A young teenager when he returned to Behchokǫ̀ ,Vital took this bag with him on a trapping trip with an uncle. A mink paw on the drawstring is from his first animal caught, kept to bring further good luck.
