“When the weather got warm and it came time to move, our chiefs shouted through the camp:
“ ‘Make ready to pull up your lodge-pins; we are going to move towards the mountains.’
“And in the early morning, before sun-up, they called again:
“ ‘This is the day; pack up your things and take down your lodges; we shall start before the sun is high.’
“We stopped to hunt buffalo near the Sweet Grass Hills. Before sunrise our chiefs rode through the camp and shouted:
“ ‘The buffalo are close; a big herd is coming towards camp; get ready your long-winded horses and the hard-runners; soon we shall hunt.’
“Then we chased the buffalo until their carcasses were scattered all over. We rubbed our knives and cut open their backs; we skinned them from the back down, throwing out their kidneys and the yellow back-fat, splitting the tongues into strips and drying them for future use. The women cooked the back-fat and suet and boiled marrow from the bones, cutting the meat into slices and hanging it on scaffolds to cure in sun and wind. We had many feasts and ate the choice pieces; the old people and children were invited; all were happy and had plenty to eat.
“The strong women quickly got the hair off their buffalo hides and made them into parfleches, sacks, and clothes; some of the hides they tanned for lodges, oiling the skins with brains and liver mixed; they used the hides of the bulls for Indian trunks and made strings from the sinews and ropes from the long hair. [[73]]
“After we had stayed for a while near the Sweet Grass Hills, our chiefs again shouted through the camp:
“ ‘Come on! It is time to move. We shall go to pick berries. A young man who traveled far found that berries are ripe—service berries and raspberries.’