The Indian woman is master of the lodge. She carries the purse. Any
money that comes into the hands of the husband is immediately handed over.
The servile tasks of the camp are performed by the women. Herein we have
an expression of the law of equality. The husband has to perform the
exhausting and dangerous task of hunting wild game for food and the skins
for clothing. He had to protect the camp against hostile attacks, and the
woman felt that her task was easy in comparison. The Indian child rules
the family. They are rarely, if ever, corrected. No Indian mother was
ever known to strike her child. If they want anything they cry until they
get it—and they know how to cry. In play they are as mirthful and
boisterous as any white child. They ride mock horses, and play mud ball.
The Indian boy prepares willow sticks, peels off the bark, then rolls the
wet clay into balls, and, sticking the ball on the end of the twig, he
throws it at a mark with great speed and accuracy. Perhaps the most
popular sport among the children is what they term the stick game. Again
willow rods are used without the bark, only this time they are cut short
enough to be rigid, and they drive them with great velocity up an inclined
board. When the stick leaves the board it speeds like an arrow far in the
distance. Every Indian boy and girl owns a pony, from which they are
almost inseparable, and which they ride with fearless abandon.
[An Indian Woman’s Dress—Mrs. Wolf Plume]