Fourre – mossbags

My understanding with the moss bag is that it was in a way a wrap that they would use in the community. Would take moss – the women would gather moss and they would clean it and they would let it dry. They would wrap the baby’s bottom in with the moss using – could use leather. 

And the moss could be used over and over again. The moss had healing properties, so there was never a diaper rash and – so when the baby was wrapped in a moss bag, similar to this one, they were – it was giving them a sense of security, like a security blanket would.  

So they would use the moss bag, they would travel with the baby going berry picking or, you know, cleaning down at the river so that the child would actually be with somebody all the time. The mother would be carrying, the father could be carrying.  

One of the things I thought was so amazing when I first heard about – was the teaching of the four sacred – like the sight, the hearing, smell, taste was placing the child forward. It would usually be a girl baby placed, being placed forward so that she would learn to take care, to pick berries, to know how to clean a fish, to – for cooking. So she would smell she would see.  You know, she would be able to see all the different things that a girl baby would need to do, the roles of the women. 

And a boy baby would be placed backwards, so that his far sightedness would be developed, so that he would be able to see the animals, the birds flying, he would be able to see the role of everybody and see the community and see the role of – the men had and the women had. So those – that would be developed with a baby that was placed backwards, the boy baby.