Omaha Dwellings, Furniture and Implements / Thirteenth Annual Report of the Beaurau of American Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution 1891-1892, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1896, pages 263-288

by James Owen Dorsey

Cradles.

A board of convenient size, usually about a yard long and a foot wide, was selected to form a cradle or uȼuhe. No pillow was needed. A soft skin ([p]aqȼuqaha ȼaⁿ) covered with plenty of thick hair was laid on the board, and on it was placed the infant.

Fig. 311.—Omaha cradle—plan.

In the annexed figures, a is the ĭnduaȼisiⁿkaⁿhe, the object painted on the board at the end where the infant's head is laid; b is the ĭndeiȼidĭndiⁿ ("that which is drawn taut over the face"), the two strings of beads and sinew or thread (sometimes made of red calico alone), which keep in place the fan, etc.; the fan (ĭndeagani), which is suspended from a bow of wood, (c) is about 6 inches square, and is now made of interwoven sinew on which beads have been strung. Occasionally thimbles and other bright objects dangle from the bottom of the fan. The iȼaȼistage (d) is the band by which the infant is fastened to the cradle.

Fig. 312.—Omaha cradle—side view.