A Lakota woman wore tools needed daily inside beaded or porcupine-quilled leather cases attached to her belt. On her right side she carried a knife case, on her left a strike-a-light case for starting a fire and between the others was her awl case.

An awl case consisted of a top flap to keep an awl from falling out. The stiff rawhide case kept a bone awl from breaking. Decorated fringes below the case served as ornamentation. Both awl cases are wrapped with Venetian beads in a greasy yellow background.

Flossie Bear Robe, great-granddaughter of Chief Big Foot, adopted me as her brother. She taught me sew-down porcupine quillwork and beadwork using holes poked with an awl for sinew sewing.