In going up a ladder I usually placed my left foot on the lowest step; brought my right foot around in front and over my left to the second step; then my left foot past and behind my right foot, with my face toward the drying stage. My left hand might or might not touch the ladder, as I was used to ascending it and felt no fear.
In descending a ladder I placed my right foot on the highest step, and overlapped with my left; and so until the bottom was reached.
I do not know if other women had exactly this custom, for I never observed or thought anything about it; but I do know that always, ascending or descending, an Indian woman went sidewise, with her face toward the stage.
Enlarging the Stage
Some years, if our family’s corn crop was very large, we extended our drying stage, making it five posts long instead of four posts long, on a side. Other families did likewise, as they had need; one family might have corn enough to require a stage five posts long, while another family needed one only four posts long, on a side. Stages, indeed, varied in length with the needs of the family, but they were all of about the same width.
Present Stages
The stage that I have been describing is of the kind that was in use in my tribe when I was a young girl of twelve or thirteen years of age. At present we no longer use this, our old form, but the Arikara form instead.
The Arikara stage differs in having a floor of willows, and is easier to make. It took two days to erect a stage of the old fashioned kind, such as I have been describing.
Building, Women’s Work
Building the drying stage was women’s work, although the men helped raise the heavy posts and floor beams. In my father’s family, my two mothers and I built the stage; but my father also helped us, especially if there was any heavy lifting to do.