Sugar is made from the sap of the maple. Wild rice is gathered by the Cree and Chippewa on Red River and the adjacent lakes, but not by the upper Missouri tribes. In times of great scarcity old bones are collected by the nations of whom we write, pounded, and the grease extracted by boiling, and eaten together with any of the foregoing roots or berries that can be found. But these sad times always happen when the snow is deep, the ground frozen, and they can not be found. Then those who have not laid up a stock of some of these roots the previous summer are driven to the necessity of killing and eating their horses and dogs, which being exhausted and nothing more to be found they are compelled to eat human flesh.[33]
Garments; Dresses
In the materials of their clothing, as far as the cold climate will admit, articles of European manufacture have been substituted for their skins, but there being no fabric as yet introduced equal to or even approaching the durability and warmth of the buffalo skin, all hunters and travelers in the winter season must be clothed with the latter to preserve life or prevent mutilation by frost. Still in the summer season these are laid aside, being full of vermin and saturated with grease and dirt, and the Indian steps proudly around in his calico shirt, blanket, and cloth pantaloons. Their hair also, formerly tangled and matted, has been unraveled by the use of different kinds of combs, and the livestock, which found “a living and a home there,” has, by these instruments, been torn from their comfortable abode, thus rendering useless their original method of disposing of these vermin, viz., extracting them with their fingers and masticating them in turn for revenge.
Most of the clothing used by these tribes is made of skins of their own procuring and dressing, the process of which has already met with attention. They have different dresses for different seasons, also various costumes for war, dancing, and other public occasions, some of which have been described. In the summer seasons, when comparatively idle, the clothing traded from the whites is preferred on account of its superior texture and color, but in their usual occupations, in winter, at war, in the chase, or any public ceremonies among themselves, very few articles of dress thus obtained are seen, if we except some blankets, undercoats, scarlet cloth, and ornaments. Their own dresses of skins fancifully arranged, adorned with feathers, beads, shells, and porcupine quills, are much more highly prized by them than any article of dress of European manufacture introduced by the traders.
We will now detail a few of the most common or everyday dresses among them, in different seasons, male and female, estimating the cost of each in buffalo robes at $3 each, their value in this country.
| No. 1 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A buffalo robe, thin hair, or a dressed cowskin robe on the back | 1 | robe | ||
| Dressed deer or antelope skin leggings | 1 | robe | ||
| Cloth breech flap and moccasins | ½ | robe | ||
| 2 | ½ | robes | at $3=$7.50 | |
| No. 2 | ||||
| A scarlet blanket | 4 | robes | ||
| Beads worked in same | 10 | robes | ||
| Deerskin shirt and leggings fringed and garnishedwith beads and porcupine quills | 5 | robes | ||
| Breech flap of scarlet cloth and moccasin | 1 | robe | ||
| Necklace of bear’s claws | 5 | robes | ||
| Moccasins and handkerchief for the head | 1 | robe | ||
| 26 | robes | at $3=$78.00 | ||
| No. 3 | ||||
| White blanket | 3 | robes | ||
| Calico shirt | 1 | robe | ||
| Neckerchief and cloth breech flap | 1 | robe | ||
| Cottonade pantaloons | 1 | robe | ||
| Muskrat cap | 1 | robe | ||
| Moccasins | 0 | robe | ||
| 7 | robes | at $3=$21.00 | ||
| No. 4 | ||||
| White blanket | 3 | robes | ||
| Blanket capot | 3 | robes | ||
| Skin leggings, plain antelope skin | 1 | robe | ||
| Breechcloth and moccasins | ½ | robe | ||
| 7 | ½ | robes | at $3=$22.50 | |
| No. 5 | ||||
| Scarlet or Hudson Bay blanket | 4 | robes | ||
| Beads worked on same | 10 | robes | ||
| Scarlet laced chief’s coat | 6 | robes | ||
| Black fur hat and three cock feathers | 2 | robes | ||
| Silver hatband and plate | 2 | robes | ||
| 1 pair silver arm bands | 2 | robes | ||
| Scarlet cloth leggings and hawk bells | 1 | robe | ||
| Black silk handkerchief and cloth breech flap | 1 | robe | ||
| Silver gorget, ear wheels and hair pipe | 2 | robes | ||
| Moccasins garnished with beads | ½ | robe | ||
| 30 | ½ | robes | at $3=$91.50 | |
| Winter Dress for Men Hunter’s winter dress of the Plains No. 7 | ||||
| Buffalo robe coat, hair inside | 1 | robe | ||
| Buffalo robe over it | 1 | robe | ||
| Skin cap and mittens, hair inside | ½ | robe | ||
| Blanket breech flap, robe, moccasins, belt knife,and fire apparatus | ½ | robe | ||
| Dressed cowskin leggings 1 pair snowshoes | ½ | robe | ||
| 3 | ½ | robes | at $3=$10.50 | |
| No. 2 | ||||
| White blanket coat with hood | 3 | robes | ||
| White blanket over it | 3 | robes | ||
| Flannel or calico shirt | 1 | robe | ||
| Blanket leggings | 1 | robe | ||
| Soled rope moccasins Blanket breech flap Skin mittens, hair inside | 1 | robe | ||
| 9 | robes | at $3=$27.00 | ||
No. 2 is the dress of a wood hunter, ordinary warrior in winter, if we take away the blanket and substitute a buffalo robe; or it is worn in traveling, and is occasionally used by hunters in the Crow and Sioux Nations, but the Cree and Assiniboin mostly wear No. 1 winter on the plains. Other ordinary dresses are only variations of the foregoing, adding some articles and withdrawing others, but none of them are used when in full dress, on public occasions, among themselves, except sometimes No. 5. All their fancy dresses for dances, war, and feasts have their peculiar marks and distinction in rank; also the robes worn by chiefs, soldiers, or warriors in stated assemblies have their battle scenes painted on them in rude drawings, though intelligible to them. When merely designed to be ornamental the drawing consists of a representation of the sun, made by a large brilliant circle painted in the middle. Sometimes a calumet is pictured, and other devices, such as guns, bows, lances, horses, etc.
The dresses of the divining men are not distinguished from those of ordinary Indians by any marks, unless they are able and wish to renew the remembrance of their former coups on their enemies by wearing a robe on which they are drawn, but being generally old they seldom make any display in dress, though wearing a cap or piece of bearskin round the head is common with them. The rest of their clothing in summer would answer to No. 1 and in winter to No. 2, abstracting the blanket capot.
| No. 1 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dressed cowskin cotillion | 1 | robe | ||
| Leggings of same | ½ | robe | ||
| Dressed cow or elk-skin robe | 1 | robe | ||
| Moccasins | 0 | robe | ||
| 2 | ½ | robes | at $3=$7.50 | |
| No. 2 | ||||
| Colored blanket | 4 | robes | ||
| Blue or scarlet cloth dress | 3 | robes | ||
| Garnishing of beads on same | 5 | robes | ||
| Scarlet cloth leggings ornamented with beads | 2 | robes | ||
| White deerskin moccasins worked with beads | 1 | robe | ||
| Heavy bead earrings and necklaces | 4 | robes | ||
| Brass-wire wristbands and rings | 1 | robe | ||
| 20 | robes | at $3=$60.00 | ||
| No. 3.—Crow Indians | ||||
| Fine white dressed elk-skin robe | 1 | robe | ||
| Fine white bighorn skin cotillion adorned with 300 elk teeth | 25 | robes | ||
| Neck collar of large brass wire | 1 | robe | ||
| Fine antelope skin leggings worked with porcupine quills | 3 | robes | ||
| Brass wire wristbands and rings | 1 | robe | ||
| California shell ear ornaments | 3 | robes | ||
| Very heavy bead necklaces | 3 | robes | ||
| Moccasins covered with beads | 2 | robes | ||
| 39 | robes | at $3=$117.00 | ||
| No. 4.—Sioux | ||||
| Fine white dressed elk skin robe, painted | 1 | robe | ||
| Fine white dressed antelope skin cotillion heavily ornamented with beads or shells on breast and arm | 30 | robes | ||
| Leggings of same ornamented with beads | 3 | robes | ||
| Bead or wire necklace | 2 | robes | ||
| Garnished moccasins and brass breast plate | 1 | robe | ||
| Ear bones | 3 | robes | ||
| 40 | robes | at $3=$120.00 | ||
| No. 5.—Common Sioux, Assiniboin, or Crow Dress | ||||
| White blanket | 3 | robes | ||
| Blue cloth cotillion or green cloth | 2 | robes | ||
| Scarlet cloth leggings | 1 | robe | ||
| 6 | robes | at $3=$18.00 | ||
| No. 6.—Winter Dress | ||||
| Buffalo robe | 1 | robe | ||
| Dressed cowskin cotillion | 1 | robe | ||
| Dressed cowskin leggings and shoes | 1 | robe | ||
| 3 | robes | at $3=$9.00 | ||
| No. 7.—Winter Dress—Crows | ||||
| Buffalo robe much garnished with porcupine quills | 4 | robes | ||
| Big Horn cotillion trimmed with scarlet andornamented with porcupine quills | 3 | robes | ||
| Leggings of elk skin, fringed and worked with quills | 2 | robes | ||
| Wrist, ear, and neck ornaments, say | 3 | robes | ||
| 12 | robes | $3=$36.00 | ||
There are many other dresses worn, differing in cost according to the ornaments or labor bestowed on them, and the foregoing are varied with their fancy and means; some therefore would cost high and others merely a trifle. Those of mounted warriors, for dances, soldiers, etc., are still more valuable owing to the war eagle feathers and other decorations. It is difficult to determine the cost and durability of each costume. The cost has been stated, but every Indian can dress only according to his means, which, if sufficient, will adorn his clothing with ornaments to a great extent; but if limited, he must be contented with such materials for covering as are yielded by the skins of the animals that furnish him with food; consequently every shade and variety of dress is visible among them. Some portions of these dresses are only worn on occasions, while others are retained all the time, and wear out the sooner. As an ordinary rule, Indians, both male and female, renew their clothing of European manufacture every spring, though the portions discarded are cut up for leggings, breech flaps, hunting caps, gun wadding, etc.