Native American pouches were used for carrying certain objects like a pot or basket is, and native North Americans tended to place great importance on how well-matched a carrying case was to its contents. Not only were native bags specially sized and shaped to hold an individual type of object, they were often decorated to indicate precisely what belonged inside of them.

There were two very basic styles of American Indian bags: soft pouches, made of tanned animal hides (usually deerskin or elkskin), and parfleche, made of stiff rawhide.