On a fine day, I have seen as many as 70 squaws at work at one time, dressing robes. These robes and skins are their harvest, as much so as a good crop of grain is to the farmer, as they sell all they do not need to traders, who are licensed to purchase from the Indians by the government. A good robe was worth about two dollars in cloth, ammunition, coffee, sugar, salt, etc. Sometimes the Indians would give three or four robes, or even more for a blanket, which was thought to be much better to wear around them than a buffalo robe. The Indians who could afford to wear a blanket, considered themselves much better dressed than their fellows.
The lodges were all made of buffalo skins; it took from five to eighteen skins, according to the size, to make one lodge. These were all made by the squaws.
During our lengthy stay at the place last mentioned, the weather was very cold and stormy, and the feed for our horses was very poor; but there was considerable cottonwood timber growing on the banks of the river, and a good many of the young trees were cut, and the under bark used to feed the horses. They were very fond of it, and I was informed by the Indians that this bark, during the winter months or before the buds burst in spring, was nearly as good for them as corn.
I may here mention that I remember testing the value of this bark as food, myself, during our return journey. We had no meat for three days, except one deer, which was killed when we were a few miles from our meat caches. We had hoped to find game on our journey, but finding none, we were compelled to go without. The third day I felt very faint, and it struck me that if the under bark of the cottonwood tree would feed horses and they could live on it, that it might also serve to stay my hunger. I got some young branches, and scraped off a lot of the bark, cutting it fine. I then asked the Lord to bless and sanctify it to my use. I took a mouthful, and, after chewing it for some time, swallowed the juice. I was about to swallow the bark, also, when it was suggested to me not to do so, that if I did it would clog my system, but that the juice would not. I therefore merely chewed the bark, and swallowed a few mouthfuls of the juice, from which I found relief. For this, and the suggestion not to swallow the bark, I thanked my Heavenly Father.
When the deer was killed upon this journey, it was cut up into small pieces, and distributed to as many as it would supply.
Soon after this, I was invited to eat at the lodge of a young chief and his wife. As soon as I reached the lodge, a piece of this deer was handed to me, about the size of one's hand. This was broiled, and intended for me alone. I knew they both had been without meat as long as I had, and I did not think they had partaken of bark juice as I had, just before.
I therefore cut a small piece off for myself, and asked them to eat the remainder.
The chief said: "No! Indian eat once in three days—good! If not, can buckle up his belt tighter" (which he did); "but white man, or morie tonger, needs to eat three times a day."
Neither he nor his wife would take it, so I ate it.