Tipatshimuna 
Description:
Pouch of bag (approximately 8″ long and 5.5″ wide) flat with rounded bottom made from navy cotton denim material. Hem trimmed with white binding. Cover flap, side and shape of pouch made from trade beads of early twentieth century type. They are sewn with ordinary white thread onto a white backing with concentric bands, following the outline of the cover with the centre design of red and blue beads on background of off-white beads. Flap sewn to top of pouch edges trimmed with white binding. Shoulder strap (total length of 27.6″ and 1.5″ wide) made from a woven strip of same coloured beads arranged in a continuous design and sewn to white cotton backing. Strap ends sewn to pieces of cotton (approximately 0.75″ long) which are sewn to top corners of pouch.
References:
James W. VanStone. 1982. The Speck Collection of Montagnais Material Culture From the Lower St. Lawrence Drainage, Quebec. Chicago: Field Museum of Natural History. Fieldiana, Anthropology New Series No.5. MacKenzie Shoebox dictionary 2003.
Innu Narrative:
“I am not sure what it is called. Maybe miutish (small bag) or miut (bag). That’s what it’s called.” Sheshin (Rich) Rich
“It’s called etetshestenmuan.” Etuat Mistenapeo
“Stemau kapitauakant or uikueau (tobacco bag) (uikueau means “bag” and kapitauakant “stored.” Munik (Gregoire) Rich
“This is for their tobacco – to put it in. Stemau kapitauakant (tobacco case) In the past, the tobacco that people used to smoke was a hard, square stick of tobacco. It was shaped like a square. It was not like the tobacco people buy in the stores now. And this bag is properly where they put that kind of tobacco.” Pinamen (Rich) Katshinak.
When you were heading into the community, you gathered enough meat and skins to last you for the winter. Especially makushan. This had to be kept for future visitors as well. We traded for tobacco and other stuff. Those people from other places, they did well over there [in their territory] because there were more martin, otter, and other fur. Here, we didn’t have too many of those. It is barren over here. Where there are a lot of trees, that’s where the money is. Here, we exchanged skins and meat with the visitors – Tshishennish Pasteen.
The Schefferville, Uashat, and Sheshatshiu Innuat came through [George River area] then to trade for the meat that was stored in ashtatshikun. It would be shared and given away in exchange for tobacco and tea. These people had enough because they could get it easier. They also exchanged it for hide for snowshoes. This was a very common practice, exchanging items in the old days – Tshishennish Pasteen.
Other Info:
“The Speck collection contains nine tobacco pouches. Two of these are of the roll-up variety, consisting of two rectangular pieces of skin, one much longer than the other, sewn together on three sides. The larger piece serves as a flap when the pouch is rolled. One of these pouches is made from the skin of a moose leg with the hair on. It is tied with a narrow moose skin strap at the end of which is a fastener-pipe cleaner made from a loon’s beak… The remaining seven tobacco pouches are rectangular in shape and close with semi-circular flaps. One pouch, made from the skin of a moose’s leg with the hair on, has a moose skin strap attached to the center of the flap and is ornamented with a short, single row of multicolored beads on one side… Tobacco pouches, particularly the roll-up variety, were frequently closed with the aid of fasteners which also served as pipe cleaners. There are 13 of these in the Speck collection and they are quite similar, consisting of a narrow piece of bone tapered or pointed at one end with a suspension hole at the other.” VanStone (1982:12-13)
MacKenzie lists tushauan and atutushtemauan as “tobacco pouch, tobacco box; miush or mutashk as “box; suitcase.” MacKenzie lists tshishtemau and stemau as the words for “tobacco.”