North American Indians of the plains / by Clark Wissler.

  • Clark Wissler
Date:
1912
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: North American Indians of the plains / by Clark Wissler. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    77/160 (page 69)
    It will be noted that in style and range of bags and pouches, the village group of these Indians tends to stand apart from the other groups much more distinctly than the intermediate Plateau tribes of the west, for between the latter and the typical Plains tribes, there are few marked differences. Household Utensils. In a preceding section, refer¬ ence was made to baskets, which in parts of the Pla¬ teaus, often served as pots for boiling food. They were not, of course, set upon the fire, the water within being heated by hot stones. Pottery was made by the Hida- tsa, Mandan, and Ankara, and probably by all the other tribes of the village group. There is some historical evidence that it was once made by the Black- foot and there are traditions of its use among the Gros Ventre, Cheyenne, and Assiniboine; but with the possible exception of the Blackfoot, it has not been definitely credited to any of the nine typical tribes. We have no definite information as to how foods were boiled among these tribes before traders introduced kettles. Many tribes, however, knew how to hang a fresh paunch upon sticks and boil in it with stones (Fig. 26). Some used a fresh skin in a hole. Thus Catlin says: — “ There is a very curious custom amongst the Assinneboins, from which they have taken their name; a name given them by their neigh¬ bors, from a singular mode the}^ have of boiling their meat, which is done in the following manner:—when they kill meat, a hole is dug in the ground about the size of a common pot, and a piece of the raw hide of the animal, as taken from the back, is put over the hole, and then pressed down with the hands close around the sides, and filled with