This bag was made during the early reservation period (approximately 1850–90), when the United States government outlawed the Lakota’s annual Sundance and instituted Fourth of July celebrations in its place. Depictions of the American flag and interpretations of the Great Seal of the United States were popularized as beadwork motifs and sometimes worn or displayed as visual cues and warnings. The artist, likely a woman, may have made the container as a special gift or for personal use. Women, who held important and culturally specific property roles, regularly transported belongings from one camp to the next and ornamented the interior of tipis and lodges.