The primitive clothing of the Blackfeet was made of the dressed skins of
certain animals. Women seldom wore a head covering. Men, however, in winter
generally used a cap made of the skin of some small animal, such as the
antelope, wolf, badger, or coyote. As the skin from the head of these
animals often formed part of the cap, the ears being left on, it made a
very odd-looking head-dress. Sometimes a cap was made of the skin of some
large bird, such as the sage-hen, duck, owl, or swan.
The ancient dress of the women was a shirt of cowskin, with long sleeves
tied at the wrist, a skirt reaching half-way from knees to ankles, and
leggings tied above the knees, with sometimes a supporting string running
from the belt to the leggings. In more modern times, this was modified, and
a woman's dress consisted of a gown or smock, reaching from the neck to
below the knees. There were no sleeves, the armholes being provided with
top coverings, a sort of cape or flap, which reached to the
elbows. Leggings were of course still worn. They reached to the knee, and
were generally made, as was the gown, of the tanned skins of elk, deer,
sheep, or antelope. Moccasins for winter use were made of buffalo robe, and
of tanned buffalo cowskin for summer wear. The latter were always made with
parfleche soles, which greatly increased their durability, and were often
ornamented over the instep or toes with a three-pronged figure, worked in
porcupine quills or beads, the three prongs representing, it is said, the
three divisions or tribes of the nation. The men wore a shirt, breech-clout,
leggings which reached to the thighs, and moccasins. In winter both men and
women wore a robe of tanned buffalo skin, and sometimes of beaver. In
summer a lighter robe was worn, made of cowskin or buckskin, from which the
hair had been removed. Both sexes wore belts, which supported and confined
the clothing, and to which were attached knife-sheaths and other useful
articles.
Necklaces and ear-rings were worn by all, and were made of shells, bone,
wood, and the teeth and claws of animals. Elk tushes were highly prized,
and were used for ornamenting women's dresses. A gown profusely decorated
with them was worth two good horses. Eagle feathers were used by the men to
make head-dresses and to ornament shields and also weapons. Small bunches
of owl or grouse feathers were sometimes tied to the scalp locks. It is
doubtful if the women ever took particular care of their hair. The men,
however, spent a great deal of time brushing, braiding, and ornamenting
their scalp locks. Their hair was usually worn in two braids, one on each
side of the head. Less frequently, four braids were made, one behind and in
front of each ear. Sometimes, the hair of the forehead was cut off square,
and brushed straight up; and not infrequently it was made into a huge
topknot and wound with otter fur. Often a slender lock, wound with brass
wire or braided, hung down from one side of the forehead over the face.
As a rule, the men are tall, straight, and well formed. Their features are
regular, the eyes being large and well set, and the nose generally
moderately large, straight, and thin. Their chests are splendidly
developed. The women are quite tall for their sex, but, as a rule, not so
good-looking as the men. Their hands are large, coarse, and knotted by hard
labor; and they early become wrinkled and careworn. They generally have
splendid constitutions. I have known them to resume work a day after
childbirth; and once, when travelling, I knew a woman to halt, give birth to
a child, and catch up with the camp inside of four hours.
As a rule, children are hardy and vigorous. They are allowed to do about as
they please from the time they are able to walk. I have often seen them
playing in winter in the snow, and spinning tops on the ice, barefooted and
half-naked. Under such conditions, those which have feeble constitutions
soon die. Only the hardiest reach maturity and old age.
It is said that very long ago the people made houses of mud, sticks, and
stones. It is not known what was their size or shape, and no traces of them
are known to have been found. For a very long time, the lodge seems to have
been their only dwelling. In ancient times, before they had knives of
metal, stones were used to hold down the edges of the lodge, to keep it
from being blown away. These varied in size from six inches to a foot or
more in diameter. Everywhere on the prairie, one may now see circles of
these stones, and, within these circles, the smaller ones, which surrounded
the fireplace. Some of them have lain so long that only the tops now
project above the turf, and undoubtedly many of them are buried out of
sight.
Lodges were always made of tanned cowskin, nicely cut and sewn together, so
as to form an almost perfect cone. At the top were two large flaps, called
ears, which were kept extended or closed, according to the direction and
strength of the wind, to create a draft and keep the lodge free from
smoke. The lodge covering was supported by light, straight pine or spruce
poles, about eighteen of which were required. Twelve cowskins made a lodge
about fourteen feet in diameter at the base, and ten feet high. I have
heard of a modern one which contained forty skins. It was over thirty feet
in diameter, and was so heavy that the skins were sewn in two pieces which
buttoned together.
An average-sized dwelling of this kind contained eighteen skins and was
about sixteen feet in diameter. The lower edge of the lodge proper was
fastened, by wooden pegs, to within an inch or two of the ground. Inside, a
lining, made of brightly painted cowskin, reached from the ground to a
height of five or six feet. An air space of the thickness of the lodge
poles--two or three inches--was thus left between the lining and the lodge
covering, and the cold air, rushing up through it from the outside, made a
draft, which aided the ears in freeing the lodge of smoke. The door was
three or four feet high and was covered by a flap of skin, which hung down
on the outside. Thus made, with plenty of buffalo robes for seats and
bedding, and a good stock of firewood, a lodge was very comfortable, even
in the coldest weather.
It was not uncommon to decorate the outside of the lodge with buffalo tails
and brightly painted pictures of animals. Inside, the space around was
partitioned off into couches, or seats, each about six feet in length. At
the foot and head of every couch, a mat, made of straight, peeled willow
twigs, fastened side by side, was suspended on a tripod at an angle of
forty-five degrees, so that between the couches spaces were left like an
inverted V, making convenient places to store articles which were not in
use. The owner of the lodge always occupied the seat or couch at the back
of the lodge, directly opposite the door-way, the places on his right being
occupied by his wives and daughters; though sometimes a Blackfoot had so
many wives that they occupied the whole lodge. The places on his left were
reserved for his sons and visitors. When a visitor entered a lodge, he was
assigned a seat according to his rank,--the nearer to the host, the greater
the honor.
Bows were generally made of ash wood, which grows east of the mountains
toward the Sand Hills. When for any reason they could not obtain ash, they
used the wood of the choke-cherry tree, but this had not strength nor
spring enough to be of much service. I have been told also that sometimes
they used hazle wood for bows.
Arrows were made of shoots of the sarvis berry wood, which was straight,
very heavy, and not brittle. They were smoothed and straightened by a stone
implement. The grooves were made by pushing the shafts through a rib or
other flat bone in which had been made a hole, circular except for one or
two projections on the inside. These projections worked out the groove. The
object of these grooves is said to have been to allow the blood to flow
freely. Each man marked his arrows by painting them, or by some special
combination of colored feathers. The arrow heads were of two kinds,--barbed
slender points for war, and barbless for hunting. Knives were originally
made of stone, as were also war clubs, mauls, and some of the scrapers for
fleshing and graining hides. Some of the flint knives were long, others
short. A stick was fitted to them, forming a wooden handle. The handles of
mauls and war clubs were usually made of green sticks fitted as closely as
possible into a groove made in the stone, the whole being bound together by
a covering of hide put on green, tightly fitted and strongly sewed. This,
as it shrunk in drying, bound the different parts of the implement together
in the strongest possible manner. Short, heavy spears were used, the points
being of stone or bone, barbed.
I have heard no explanation among the Blackfeet of the origin of fire. In
ancient times, it was obtained by means of fire sticks, as described
elsewhere. The starting of the spark with these sticks is said to have been
hard work. At almost their first meeting with the whites, they obtained
flints and steels, and learned how to use them.
In ancient times,--in the days of fire sticks and even later, within the
memory of men now living,--fire used to be carried from place to place in a
"fire horn." This was a buffalo horn slung by a string over the shoulder
like a powderhorn. The horn was lined with moist, rotten wood, and the open
end had a wooden stopper or plug fitted to it. On leaving camp in the
morning, the man who carried the horn took from the fire a small live coal
and put it in the horn, and on this coal placed a piece of punk, and then
plugged up the horn with the stopper. The punk smouldered in this almost
air-tight chamber, and, in the course of two or three hours, the man looked
at it, and if it was nearly consumed, put another piece of punk in the
horn. The first young men who reached the appointed camping ground would
gather two or three large piles of wood in different places, and as soon as
some one who carried a fire horn reached camp, he turned out his spark at
one of these piles of wood, and a little blowing and nursing gave a blaze
which started the fire. The other fires were kindled from this first one,
and when the women reached camp and had put the lodges up, they went to
these fires, and got coals with which to start those in their lodges. This
custom of borrowing coals persisted up to the last days of the buffalo, and
indeed may even be noticed still.
The punk here mentioned is a fungus, which grows on the birch tree. The
Indians used to gather this in large quantities and dry it. It was very
abundant at the Touchwood Hills (whence the name) on Beaver Creek, a
tributary of the Saskatchewan from the south.
The Blackfeet made buckets, cups, basins, and dishes from the lining of the
buffalo's paunch. This was torn off in large pieces, and was stretched over
a flattened willow or cherry hoop at the bottom and top. These hoops were
sometimes inside and sometimes outside the bucket or dish. In the latter
case, the hoop at the bottom was often sewed to the paunch, which came down
over it, double on the outside, the needle holes being pitched with gum or
tallow. The hoop at the upper edge was also sewed to the paunch, and a
rawhide bail passed under it, to carry it by. These buckets were shaped
somewhat like our wooden ones, and were of different sizes, some of them
holding four or five gallons. They were more or less flexible, and when
carried in a pack, they could be flattened down like a crush hat, and so
took up but little room. If set on the ground when full, they would stand
up for a while, but as they soon softened and fell down, they were usually
hung up by the bail on a little tripod. Cups were made in the same way as
buckets, but on a smaller scale and without the bail. Of course, nothing
hot could be placed in these vessels.
It is doubtful if the Blackfeet ever made any pottery or basket ware. They,
however, made bowls and kettles of stone. There is an ancient children's
song which consists of a series of questions asked an elk, and its replies
to the same. In one place, the questioner sings, "Elk, what is your bowl
(or dish)?" and the elk answers, "_Ok-wi-tok-so-ka_," stone bowl. On this
point, Wolf Calf, a very old man, states that in early days the Blackfeet
sometimes boiled their meat in a stone bowl made out of a hard clayey
rock.[1] Choosing a fragment of the right size and shape, they would pound
it with another heavier rock, dealing light blows until a hollow had been
made in the top. This hollow was made deeper by pounding and grinding; and
when it was deep enough, they put water in it, and set it on the fire, and
the water would boil. These pots were strong and would last a long time. I
do not remember that any other tribe of Plains Indians made such stone
bowls or mortars, though, of course, they were commonly made, and in
singular perfection, by the Pacific Coast tribes; and I have known of rare
cases in which basalt mortars and small soapstone ollas have been found on
the central plateau of the continent in southern Wyoming. These articles,
however, had no doubt been obtained by trade from Western tribes.
[Footnote 1: See The Blackfoot Genesis, p. 141.]
Serviceable ladles and spoons were made of wood and of buffalo and mountain
sheep horn. Basins or flat dishes were sometimes made of mountain sheep
horn, boiled, split, and flattened, and also of split buffalo horn, fitted
and sewn together with sinew, making a flaring, saucer-shaped dish. These
were used as plates or eating dishes. Of course, they leaked a little, for
the joints were not tight. Wooden bowls and dishes were made from knots and
protuberances of trees, dug out and smoothed by fire and the knife or by
the latter alone.
It is not known that these people ever made spears, hooks, or other
implements for capturing fish. They appear never to have used boats of any
kind, not even "bull boats." Their highest idea of navigation was to lash
together a few sticks or logs, on which to transport their possessions
across a river.
Red, brown, yellow, and white paints were made by burning clays of these
colors, which were then pulverized and mixed with a little grease. Black
paint was made of charred wood.
Bags and sacks were made of parfleche, usually ornamented with buckskin
fringe, and painted with various designs in bright colors. Figures having
sharp angles are most common.
The diet of the Blackfeet was more varied than one would think. Large
quantities of sarvis berries (_Amelanchier alnifolia_) were gathered
whenever there was a crop (which occurs every other year), dried, and
stored for future use. These were gathered by women, who collected the
branches laden with ripe fruit, and beat them over a robe spread upon the
ground. Choke-cherries were also gathered when ripe, and pounded up, stones
and all. A bushel of the fruit, after being pounded up and dried, was
reduced to a very small quantity. This food was sometimes eaten by itself,
but more often was used to flavor soups and to mix with pemmican. Bull
berries (_Shepherdia argentea_) were a favorite fruit, and were gathered in
large quantities, as was also the white berry of the red willow. This last
is an exceedingly bitter, acrid fruit, and to the taste of most white men
wholly unpleasant and repugnant. The Blackfeet, however, are very fond of
it; perhaps because it contains some property necessary to the nourishment
of the body, which is lacking in their every-day food.
The camas root, which grows abundantly in certain localities on the east
slope of the Rockies, was also dug, cooked, and dried. The bulbs were
roasted in pits, as by the Indians on the west side of the Rocky Mountains,
the Kalispels, and others. It is gathered while in the bloom--June 15 to
July 15. A large pit is dug in which a hot fire is built, the bottom being
first lined with flat stones. After keeping up this fire for several hours,
until the stones and earth are thoroughly heated, the coals and ashes are
removed. The pit is then lined with grass, and is filled almost to the top
with camas bulbs. Over these, grass is laid, then twigs, and then earth to
a depth of four inches. On this a fire is built, which is kept up for from
one to three days, according to the quantity of the bulbs in the pit.
When the pit is opened, the small children gather about it to suck the
syrup, which has collected on the twigs and grass, and which is very
sweet. The fresh-roasted camas tastes something like a roasted chestnut,
with a little of the flavor of the sweet potato. After being cooked, the
roots are spread out in the sun to dry, and are then put in sacks to be
stored away. Sometimes a few are pounded up with sarvis berries, and dried.
Bitter-root is gathered, dried, and boiled with a little sugar. It is a
slender root, an inch or two long and as thick as a goose quill, white in
color, and looking like short lengths of spaghetti. It is very starchy.
In the spring, a certain root called _mats_ was eaten in great
quantities. This plant was known to the early French employees of the
Hudson's Bay and American Fur Companies as _pomme blanche (Psoralea
esculenta)_.
All parts of such animals as the buffalo, elk, deer, etc., were eaten, save
only the lungs, gall, and one or two other organs. A favorite way of eating
the paunch or stomach was in the raw state. Liver, too, was sometimes eaten
raw. The unborn calf of a fresh-killed animal, especially buffalo, was
considered a great delicacy. The meat of this, when boiled, is white,
tasteless, and insipid. The small intestines of the buffalo were sometimes
dried, but more often were stuffed with long, thin strips of meat. During
the stuffing process, the entrail was turned inside out, thus confining
with the meat the sweet white fat that covers the intestine. The next step
was to roast it a little, after which the ends were tied to prevent the
escape of the juices, and it was thoroughly boiled in water. This is a very
great delicacy, and when properly prepared is equally appreciated by whites
and Indians.
As a rule, there were but two ways of cooking meat,--boiling and
roasting. If roasted, it was thoroughly cooked; but if boiled, it was only
left in the water long enough to lose the red color, say five or ten
minutes. Before they got kettles from the whites, the Blackfeet often
boiled meat in a green hide. A hole was dug in the ground, and the skin,
flesh side up, was laid in it, being supported about the edges of the hole
by pegs. The meat and water having been placed in this hollow, red-hot
stones were dropped in the water until it became hot and the meat was
cooked.
In time of plenty, great quantities of dried meat were prepared for use
when fresh meat could not be obtained. In making dried meat, the thicker
parts of an animal were cut in large, thin sheets and hung in the sun to
dry. If the weather was not fine, the meat was often hung up on lines or
scaffolds in the upper part of the lodge. When properly cured and if of
good quality, the sheets were about one-fourth of an inch thick and very
brittle. The back fat of the buffalo was also dried, and eaten with the
meat as we eat butter with bread. Pemmican was made of the flesh of the
buffalo. The meat was dried in the usual way; and, for this use, only lean
meat, such as the hams, loin, and shoulders, was chosen. When the time came
for making the pemmican, two large fires were built of dry quaking aspen
wood, and these were allowed to burn down to red coals. The old women
brought the dried meat to these fires, and the sheets of meat were thrown
on the coals of one of them, allowed to heat through, turned to keep them
from burning, and then thrown on the flesh side of a dry hide, that lay on
the ground near by. After a time, the roasting of this dried meat caused a
smoke to rise from the fire in use, which gave the meat a bitter taste, if
cooked in it. They then turned to the other fire, and used that until the
first one had burned clear again. After enough of the roasted meat had been
thrown on the hide, it was flailed out with sticks, and being very brittle
was easily broken up, and made small. It was constantly stirred and pounded
until it was all fine. Meantime, the tallow of the buffalo had been melted
in a large kettle, and the pemmican bags prepared. These were made of
bull's hide, and were in two pieces, cut oblong, and with the corners
rounded off. Two such pieces sewed together made a bag which would hold one
hundred pounds. The pounded meat and tallow--the latter just beginning to
cool--were put in a trough made of bull's hide, a wooden spade being used
to stir the mixture. After it was thoroughly mixed, it was shovelled into
one of the sacks, held open, and rammed down and packed tight with a big
stick, every effort being made to expel all the air. When the bag was full
and packed as tight as possible, it was sewn up. It was then put on the
ground, and the women jumped on it to make it still more tight and
solid. It was then laid away in the sun to cool and dry. It usually took
the meat of two cows to make a bag of one hundred pounds; a very large bull
might make a sack of from eighty to one hundred pounds.
A much finer grade of pemmican was made from the choicest parts of the
buffalo with marrow fat. To this dried berries and pounded choke-cherries
were added, making a delicious food, which was extremely
nutritious. Pemmican was eaten either dry as it came from the sack, or
stewed with water.
In the spring, the people had great feasts of the eggs of ducks and other
water-fowl. A large quantity having been gathered, a hole was dug in the
ground, and a little water put in it. At short intervals above the water,
platforms of sticks were built, on which the eggs were laid. A smaller hole
was dug at one side of the large hole, slanting into the bottom of it. When
all was ready, the top of the larger hole was covered with mud, laid upon
cross sticks, and red-hot stones were dropped into the slant, when they
rolled down into the water, heating it, and so cooking the eggs by steam.
Fish were seldom eaten by these people in early days, but now they seem
very fond of them. Turtles, frogs, and lizards are considered creatures of
evil, and are never eaten. Dogs, considered a great delicacy by the Crees,
Gros Ventres, Sioux, Assinaboines, and other surrounding tribes, were never
eaten by the Blackfeet. No religious motive is assigned for this
abstinence. I once heard a Piegan say that it was wrong to eat dogs. "They
are our true friends," he said. "Men say they are our friends and then turn
against us, but our dogs are always true. They mourn when we are absent,
and are always glad when we return. They keep watch for us in the night
when we sleep. So pity the poor dogs."
Snakes, grasshoppers, worms, and other insects were never eaten. Salt was
an unknown condiment. Many are now very fond of it, but I know a number,
especially old people, who never eat it.