Uses of Plants by the Hidatsas of the Northern Plains

Preface

illustrations map 1. Great Plains prairie types and location of Fort Berthold xxx figures 1. Son Of A Star and Buffalobird-woman’s winter and summer homes in 1878 xxvii 2. A mouse-proof hanging sling 47 3. Woman playing a game 51 4. A currant 52 5. Wild white onion 62 6. A smaller mouse-proof sling 75 7. A sage-lined pit for ripening plums 80 8. Hidatsa gaming pieces made from plum pits 81 9. Mandan gaming pieces made from plum pits 82 10. A scrotum basket 86 11. “Wild carrot” (biscuitroot) 94 12. Sweetgrass braids on an eagle feather fan 113 13. Sweetgrass tie on Buffalobird-woman’s braid 115 14. Pine needle necklace for a child 120 15. Bed frame 122 16. Location of beaver scent glands 124 17. A model of a deer snare 145 18. A rabbit snare 147 19. Carrying a beaver grass bundle 156 20. Needle for stringing dried squash, with a beaver grass cord 157 21. A bone awl 160 xii list of illustrations 22. A tobacco blossom with calyx 173 23. Drying and storing tobacco 174 24. A reed whistle 206 25. The other reed whistle 206 26. Buckbrush bundle 214 27. A snare fence of buckbrush 216 28. An improvised sweatlodge frame 217 29. Collecting boxelder sap 223 30. A boxelder root hanger 224 31. A red-grass (big bluestem) arrow 230 32. The “ornamented cradle”—the model for the reed doll 235 33. Ghost whistle 238 34. A sandreed (Calamovilfa) hair ornament 272 35. Wolf Chief with his hair ornament 273 36. Wood framing of an earthlodge 282 37. Willow fence showing details of construction 298 38. Buffalobird-woman with a load of firewood 306 39. Small Ankle snagging driftwood from the Missouri 307 40. Buffalobird-woman carrying a log 308 41. The basic garden/all-purpose ash digging-stick 312 42. A bullboat frame 317 43. A large wooden bowl with a lug or handle 322 44. A burl on a cottonwood tree 323 45. A wooden cup 324 46. A bison shoulder blade (scapula) hoe 325 47. A wooden ash rake and an antler rake 326 48. The “pottery patter” of cottonwood bark 330 49. Three types of arrows 344 50. An unstrung bow in its case 345 51. Setting the curve in a bow 348 52. A boy with his grass arrows, quiver, and bow 351 53. Boys hunting with blunt arrows 353 54. Buffalobird-woman measuring lodge post placement 363 list of illustrations xiii 55. Placement of a vertical center post 364 56. Raising a horizontal stringer 364 57. Two horizontal stringers on a vertical post 365 58. The framing of a 13-post lodge (from above) 366 59. The framing of a 13-post lodge (side view) 367 60. Winter earthlodge framing 375 61. Structure of a “twin-lodge” 376 62. Supporting posts on hunting lodge 377 63. Details of the construction of a hunting lodge roof 380 64. Post-pulling device 388 65. Design of Like-a-Fishhook Village 390 66. Like-a-Fishhook Village and its environs 391 67. The palisade, with a loophole and ditch inside 392 68. A bastion in the palisade 392 69. A basic basket pattern 398 70. Wooden bowl with horn spoon 404 71. Goodbird eating with his parents in hunting camp 408 ...