The method of cooking food, as mentioned in the preceding paragraph, is graphically illustrated in the old sketch made a century ago, now reproduced in plate [6], a. This shows a family gathered about a small fire where food is being prepared, and beyond is a bark-covered wigwam. The sketch bears the legend, "A family from the tribe of the wild Sautaux Indians on the Red River. Drawn from nature." It indicates the primitive dress and appearance of the people, and it is of interest to compare this with the photograph which is reproduced in plate [6], b, showing another small group of the people three-quarters of a century later. Such were the changes within that period.
Similar to the preceding were the habitations shown by Kane in a sketch made during the early summer of 1845, the original painting being reproduced as plate [7], a. This was described as "an Indian encampment amongst the islands of Lake Huron; the wigwams are made of birch-bark, stripped from the trees in large pieces and sewed together with long fibrous roots; when the birch tree cannot be conveniently had, they weave rushes into mats ... for covering, which are stretched round in the same manner as the bark, upon eight or ten poles tied together at the top, and stuck in the ground at the required circle of the tent, a hole being left at the top to permit the smoke to go out. The fire is made in the centre of the lodge, and the inmates sleep all round with their feet towards it." (Kane, (1), pp. 6-7.) The interesting painting could well have been made among the Ojibway camps or settlements of northern Minnesota instead of representing a group of wigwams located many miles eastward, but this tends to prove the similarity of the small villages in the region where large sheets of birch bark were to be obtained.
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY BULLETIN 77 PLATE 6
a. "A family from the tribe of the wild Sautaux Indians on the Red River." Drawn from nature, 1821
b. Ojibway wigwam. Leech Lake, Minnesota, 1896
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY BULLETIN 77 PLATE 7
a. "Encampment among the Islands of Lake Huron." Paul Kane, 1845