No totem posts were in use among the Omaha. The tent of the principal man of each gens was decorated on the outside with his gentile badge, which was painted on each side of the entrance as well as on the back of the tent.[1] The furniture of the sacred tents resembled that of the ordinary ones.
Before the introduction of canvas tents by the whites no needles or thread were used by the Siouan tribes. The women used sinew of the deer or buffalo instead of thread, and for needles they had awls made of elk horn.
Fig. 310.—[P]ejequde's tent.
Since there were no outbuildings, public granaries, or other structures of this description, each household stored away its own grain and other provisions. There were no special tribal or communal dwellings; but sometimes two or more households occupied a single earth lodge. When a council was held, it took place in the earth lodge of one of the head chiefs, or else two or three common tents were united, making one large one.[2] There were no public baths, as the Missouri river was near, and they could resort to it whenever they desired. Dance houses were improvised either of earth lodges or skin tents.
Sweat-lodges were in the form of low tents (ʇiuȼipu).[3] Stones were not boiled for the sweat-lodge, but were put into the fire to be heated. They were removed from the fire by means of sticks called inߵĕbasiȼan, and then water from the kettle was poured on them, creating steam. Cedar fronds were dropped on the stones, causing a perfume to arise.
[1] Third Ann. Rep. Bur. Ethnology for 1882-'83, p. 230; also "A Study of Siouan Cults," in Eleventh Ann. Rep. Bur. Ethnology, 1889-'90, p. 351.
[2] Third Ann. Rep., op. cit., p. 294.
[3] Contributions to North American Ethnology, vol. vi, 1890, pp. 152, 169, and 234.