Part 2—Horses Return to Native Americans

Part 2—Horses Return to Native Americans

by | Jan 10, 2023 | Blog

Horses were an invaluable addition to the lives of Plains Indians. The Lakota loved and honored their horses. Decorative painting on tipis and hides often depicted men on horseback. On this tipi, the lowest row of horses and riders appear to be racing. Above, the images seem to indicate scenes of warfare. Photo courtesy of State Historical Society ND 1952-5531.

Horses evolved in North America. They went through many stages, changing from small and three-toed to one-toed and increasing in size to about the size of a deer.

They were well-adapted to the grasslands of North America, but they disappeared from the continent around 10,000 years ago. Scientists do not know why horses disappeared. It may have been because of some ecological disaster, disease, over-hunting by humans—or all three.

Paleontologists have deterrmined that some North American horses migrated westward and crossed the Bering Land Bridge into Asia where they prospered. Whatever the cause, there were no horses (Equus species) in North America from about 10,000 years ago until about 1520 A.D.

When Columbus made his second expedition in 1493 to the Caribbean islands, he brought horses, but it is doubtful that any of those animals were released on the continent.

In 1519, however, the Spanish explorer Hernán Cortés (1485-1547) brought horses into the southern Great Plains of the continental mainland. Horses returned to North America, but they were now domesticated animals trained to work for humans.

Spanish explorers, missionaries and rancheros kept horses for transportation, for beasts of burden and for farm work.

The early Spanish closely guarded their horses and did not allow American Indians to own them.

This intricately braided rope, or horse rein, was made from red (sorrel), black, and white horse hair. It was probably used only for ceremonial purposes. This rope is in the collections of the State Historical Society of North Dakota. SHSND Museum 10934.

Many tribal historians believe that American Indians only rarely captured and trained wild horses.

American Indians acquired horses in 1680, when Pueblo peoples, led by Popé, drove the Spanish from New Mexico and captured the horses left behind. Comanches, Utes and Apaches captured horses and developed the skills they needed to ride and hunt on horseback.

Trade between tribes brought horses north from New Mexico. The Shoshonis (who now live in Montana) began making journeys south to trade for horses.

Their trade involved more than horses. They also traded buffalo robes and other goods for bridles and saddles. Using the Spanish model, American Indians made their own bridles and saddles.

By 1700, a few horses had reached the tribes of the Upper Missouri River country. By 1750 horses were incorporated into the life ways of Indian tribes and were part of a web of trading and raiding among the tribes.

Horses brought great advantages to Indian tribes. With horses, hunters could travel long distances to find bison herds. Horses added speed and efficiency to the bison hunt. And they were useful in hauling heavier and larger burdens than a dog or human could.

However, horses required feed—grass or cottonwood tree bark for winter feed. And riders were occasionally injured by an accident with a horse.

Like metal goods and guns, horses arrived on the northern Great Plains in advance of non-Indian traders and explorers. 

Though horses and other European trade goods brought many advantages, they were also a sign that white soldiers and settlers would soon follow.

Section 2: Lakota Horses

During the decades before 1650, Lakotas, a branch of the large Dakota (sometimes called Sioux) nation, lived in the woodlands east of the Red River.

During the 17th century, they moved into the Great Plains and occupied the land between the Red River of the North and the Missouri River.

They began to live a more nomadic life than they had in the woodlands. They followed bison herds and became expert hunters.

Man’s saddle. The saddle is made of two pieces of wood joined by a piece of elk horn in front (pommel) and in back (cantle). This style of saddle would have been used by a man. After 1800, the owner of the saddle might have added metal rings or other pieces he acquired in trade. SHSND collections. SHSND Museum 1982.285.38.

According to the winter count of Battiste Good, the southern bands of Lakotas first saw horses around 1700.  By 1715, horses appeared frequently in Good’s winter count.

Sometime in the middle 18th century (around 1750), Lakotas used horses regularly for hunting and transportation. Most likely they traded with other tribes for horses as they found out how useful horses could be.

Man’s saddle as viewed from the front. The entire saddle made of wood and elk horn was covered in “green,” un-tanned bison hide that was stitched with sinew and allowed to dry. The saddle was very strong and might have been used for generations. SHSND collections. SHSND Museum 1982.285.38.

Horses became an important part of society because Lakotas were nomadic. They moved their villages to places where they had good grass and water for their horses and nearby bison herds.

Horses made moving the village much easier because they could carry heavy loads. Horses also made bison hunting more efficient because a horse could carry a hunter right into the bison herd.

Older men and boys sometimes used saddles in the bison hunt. The saddle was made from two pieces of wood, about 20 inches long and one and one-half inches thick. The two pieces were joined by an elk antler that was shaped and fitted to form an arch just behind the horse’s withers.

Another piece of elk antler joined the two pieces of wood behind the rider.

Raw bison hide covered the entire saddle and was stitched into place with sinew. When the rawhide dried, the wood and antler saddle was very strong. The saddle was attached to the horse with a girth of bison leather.

Some hunters made stirrups of buffalo hide or wood. These well-made saddles might have been used by generations of Lakota hunters.

This woman’s saddle is similar to a man’s saddle, but the elk horn pieces in the front and the back rise higher than a man’s saddle. The higher pommel and cantle allowed a woman to carry bags of goods and even small children (safely secured to the saddle). SHSND collections. SHSND Museum 1991.41.2

This horse has a traditional saddle and halter. Saddle of wood, is joined with elk horn in the front (pommel) and back (cantle). The halter is made of rope or twisted rawhide, but it is fashioned in the traditional manner without a metal bit. The horse pulls a travois of tipi poles. A baby is carefully secured to the webbed “basket” between the poles. The horse’s colt stands behind her. SHSND 0739-v1-p52.

A Lakota family might own several horses, but a bison hunting horse was a special animal that was not used for other purposes, except perhaps war. When a man wanted a hunting horse, he selected a fast young horse and trained it to hunt bison.

He rode the horse alongside and into herds of running horses. In this way, the horse became trained for speed and learned how to approach a moving herd of animals. The hunter also rubbed bison robes over the horse so it would learn to know and not fear the smell of bison.

These stirrups of the traditional Indian saddle were made of wood covered with hide. Some stirrups were made from rawhide without wood. These stirrups were used with the men’s saddle above. SHSND collections. SHSND Museum 1982.285.38

Rope. Horses brought many advantages to American Indians. Though Indians had made rope from the wooly hair of bison for centuries, rope-makers strengthened ropes by adding horse hair to the braided fibers. This braided rope is made of horse hair with a little wooly hair included. SHSND collections. SHSND Museum 583.

Some hunters rode after the bison herd with only a halter on their horse. Others used a saddle as well.

When a Lakota horse was prepared for a bison hunt, it had a halter, or head piece, that was made of leather tanned from a bison hide. There were two leather straps: one strap encircled the horse’s muzzle just behind the corners of the mouth.

This strap was attached to another strap that passed behind the horse’s ears. Another long leather strap was attached to the halter and extended back to the rider. The halter fit somewhat tighter than modern halters.

Horses were highly valued by their owners. They often “dressed” their horses in beautifully decorated bridles and saddle bags. This saddle bag was to be carried across the horse’s back behind the saddle. Though there is a small opening in the saddle bag, this one was not designed for practical use. Evidence indicates that this saddle bag may have been owned by the great Lakota leader Sitting Bull. SHSND collections. SHSND Museum 11711.

A woman’s saddle was made in a similar way, but constructed so that the woman could also carry large packs of household goods or children on horseback.

Some Lakota horses were used to pull loads packed onto a travois (TRAV-wah, or TRAV-voy). A travois was made using tipi poles that were inserted into a harness placed over the horse’s back.

Horse owners often decorated halters to demonstrate the high value of their horses. This bridle brow piece was decorated with dyed porcupine quills, metal tinkling cones, and tassels. SHSND collections. SHSND Museum 1882.

A webbed basket was suspended between the poles for carrying children, elders, or ill adults, household goods, or bison meat. Before horses came to the northern Great Plains, dogs pulled much smaller travois.

Before the Lakota and other tribes acquired horses, they used dogs to carry burdens. The dog travois is made in a way that is very similar to the horse travois, but it is much smaller and carried much lighter loads than horses. Among the Lakota, making and packing the travois was women’s work. SHSND 1952-6303-2.

A woman who could pack a travois efficiently and well was held in high esteem.

Horse hair had many uses, too. It could be removed from the mane or tail without hurting the horse and might be used to decorate a headpiece or clothing.

Horse hair was also added to bison hair in making very strong ropes. Lakota artists often used images of horses in painting or beadwork.

Lakotas loved and cherished their horses. For special occasions (religious ceremonies or war) a horse might be painted with symbols that were important to its owner.

Some people decorated their horse’s bridles, saddles and saddle bags with beads or quillwork.

One mask (in the Smithsonian Institution today) was made of bison hide. Holes were cut in the hide for the horse’s eyes and ears. The hide was decorated with feathers.

Horses came to represent wealth to the Lakotas. Both men and women could own horses.

Men might acquire them through trade or in raids. A woman might receive a horse as payment for her beadwork.

But, in the Lakota tradition, wealth was to be given away to honor someone else who had done a great deed, or to honor someone who had died. Horses often changed hands in giveaway ceremonies.

Historians debate the impact of horses on the Lakota way of life. Some historians argue that horses changed the Lakota way of life and even had an impact on their religious ideas. Other historians state that horses allowed Lakotas to improve, but not change, their way of life.

The Lakota economy—or way of making a living—did not change greatly when they acquired horses. Lakotas continued to hunt bison and incorporate the great animal into every aspect of their lives.

Because horses made bison hunting so much more efficient, they, too, came to be honored in many parts of Lakota life.

Once the bison were gone from the northern Great Plains, some horses remained with the tribe to connect the Lakota people to their pre-reservation past.
ND Studies, 8th Grade Lakota Horses.

______________________________________________________________________________

NEXT:

Francie M Berg

Author of the Buffalo Tales &Trails blog

Bison Plant in New Rockford Expanding

by | Jan 10, 2023 | News Articles

Pandemic boosts bison consumption

Dave Thompson, Prairie Public. Dec 16, 2022

The North American Bison LLC processing plant in New Rockford is expanding.

“We’ve been experiencing solid growth, in terms of consumption of bison — not only domestically in the U.S., but across the globe,” CEO and President Jim Wells told Prairie Public. “We saw a need to expand our production capacity.”

North American Bison is harvesting around 11,000 animals per year, according to Wells.

“We’re going to move our capacity to over 17,000 animals annually,” he said.

The company recently was awarded $250,000 in state aid to help with expansion construction costs, according to state Agriculture Commissioner Doug Goehring. The money is through the Agricultural Diversification and Development Fund, which is administered by the state Agriculture Department and state-owned Bank of North Dakota to support new or expanding value-added agriculture businesses.

The coronavirus pandemic is a big driver of the bison plant expansion.

 “We had a lot of consumers who were at home, preparing meals for themselves, and looking for healthy alternatives,” Wells said. “Bison is extremely healthy.”

 Wells said it was more than just ground bison products.

 “We ended up touching a nerve with consumers in regards to health, both on our traditional ground product, but also on our other lines, like steaks,” he said. “So through COVIDd we were able to expand our household consumption beyond the typical bison burger and that’s been a really positive. Thing for the industry.”

 

A ceremony to celebrate the expansion has tentatively been scheduled for February, Wells said.

Francie M Berg

Author of the Buffalo Tales &Trails blog

Happy Holidays

Happy Holidays

by | Dec 27, 2022 | Blog

When they hear the feed wagon and Jim Strand calling , the Johnson buffalo herd of 400 comes running up the hill. As you can see, they have lots of great June grass—they don’t need extra feed, but they love it and I think they enjoy the special attention Jim gives them. Just this side of the distant blue ridge the south Grande Riv’er runs southeast (off to our left). Photo by Kathy Berg Walsh.

by Francie M. Berg | Dec 28, 2021 | Blog 74

We hope you had a Merry Christmas with a Happy New Year ahead!

We will be making some major changes in 2023. During the New Year we will be developing a Virtual Buffalo Website that we expect to be equally available to other countries around the world, in addition to our North American citizens.

One of the fun things we did this year related to buffalo, was the three-day Bismarck State College Bison Symposium which we helped sponsor, the last weekend in June. It has inspired us to move ahead.

The 2nd day my daughter Kathy and I and 80-some visitors traveled our Historic Tour in 2 large travel buses to the Hettinger-Lemmon area of North and South Dakota. We all had a great experience—we hosts as well as tourists!

Note: You can’t visit all our 8 Historic Sites in one day—it’s too exhausting! But we made it to 5 of them.

This included: a big herd of 400 live buffalo that came running up over the hills and milled around us in the loaded buses. Our authentic Shadehill Buffalo Jump used 5,500 to 7,000 ago. Two of the last great buffalo hunts anywhere in the world. And the Dakota Buttes museum where our guests enjoyed a delicious Bison Stroganoff dinner and admired Prairie Thunder—our full-size mounted bull buffalo.

Jim Strand, herdsman of the Johnson buffalo herd, came on the bus to explain some of his favorite individuals. Then he walked among them, petting old friends calmly and confidently, while we stayed on the bus. The yellow area in the foreground marks an area where the bison have recently wallowed. Photo KBW.

One Bismarck woman told me she and her husband had traveled the world, seen “everything,” and this was the BEST TOUR they’d EVER taken!

The first and third days were in Bismarck focused around the State Heritage Center—lots of good speakers and 3 or 4 fascinating panel discussions led by Native Americans as well as college experts.

We had so many requests for repeat tours that some of us are now involved in a small “Brainstorming Group” for our area. A wise young man— Hettinger’s mayor—talked us into beginning by focusing first on a smashing virtual Website. We think he’s right!

So now that’s what we’re working on, playing with names. Maybe it will be “Alive on La Riv’er Grande Buffalo Trails” or “Buffalo Trails Alive on La Riv’er Grande.”

Maybe not. But this honors early French fur traders who paddled up and down our rivers way back in the 1700s loaded with furs and named them with a French flair. And it celebrates our Grande Riv’er which waters a great chunk of this part of North and South Dakota and ultimately pours southeast into the Missouri River.

Visitors learned that buffalo are not cattle—in many ways they are wild animals. Like the deer in the headlights you glimpse at the edge of the highway or shelterbelt.

Just watch them break into an uncontrollable stampede one day when pushed too hard!

“The point of the tour,” explained Erik Holland of the North Dakota Heritage Society which helped to sponsor the Symposium. “Is to get people who have spent a day listening to the rationale about bison and bison ecology and preserving the animals on a Thursday—to a place where they can imagine it.

“And being inside a bison herd helps them recognize the majesty of the animal, the depth of the story and the broad wide spaces of North Dakota.”

We think this may be a first for this kind of program—that included scientific presentations on Bison by college professors as well as thousands of years of Buffalo history and culture told by Native American storytellers in a three-day event.

Archaeology and anthropology blending together with live herds of buffalo grazing the buttes and badlands in these historic hills made a powerful impact.

Live buffalo have always grazed the banks of La Riv’er Grande—and we predict—always will. They bridged the near-extinction of buffalo back in the 1880s.

Newborn calves were saved here on the South Grande by the Duprees—a Native American family—the next spring after their long, cold winter hunt, when the animals became almost extinct. They were nurtured with range cows on these very grasslands until Pete Dupree owned a herd of 83.

Today several long-standing commercial buffalo herds still graze the same grasslands, still watered by La Riv’er Grande.

We hope you and your family and friends celebrated a Merry Christmas—and wish you a Happy, Happy New Year throughout all of 2023!

We’ll meet with you again on January 10, 2023. That’s when our blog continues to explore the North Dakota 8th Grade curriculum and asks the question  (Italic, bold) “When did Native Americans in this place obtain horses and how did it change Buffalo hunting?”

And we have a century-old buffalo trail a few miles north to visit when the snow melts off the green grass next spring. We’re eager to hike that trail and photograph it for you!

If you’d like to take another look at the BSC Bison Symposium, here are the links

https://buffalotalesandtrails.com/2022/05/teachers-do-you-remember-what-you-did-last-summer?              Blog 58-May 7— Advance Rehearsal of the Tour

https://buffalotalesandtrails.com/2022/07/blog-62-part-1-bsc-bison-symposium-june-22-25-2022/             Blog 62-July 12–BSC Bison Symposium Part 1

https://buffalotalesandtrails.com/2022/07/bsc-bison-symposium-june-22-25-2022-part-2/              Blog 63-July 26—BSC Bison Symposium Part 2

Francie M Berg, Author

Ronda Fink, Assistant

___________________________________________________________________________

NEXT: Part 2 North Dakota Studies—Mandan and Lakota Horses.
___________________________________________________________________________

Francie M Berg

Author of the Buffalo Tales &Trails blog

NBA Winter Conference: Time is Running Out for Early Bird Discount

by | Dec 27, 2022 | News Articles

Registration is open for the 2023 NBA Winter Conference in Denver January 18-21, 2023. Register before December 18th and save $25 in registration cost! Join the biggest bison gathering of the year where we’ll gather, network, learn and celebrate the American bison!

Two days of top-notch educational programming, market updates, and amazing bison-themed meals, all concluding with our annual Gold Trophy Show and Sale (GTSS) bison auction at the National Western Stock Show on Saturday, January 21st. You won’t want to miss out on this great opportunity!

Also, please be sure to book your deeply discounted Winter Conference lodging before December 18th at the beautiful Westin Westminster hotel. Book your room without breakfast option – $139/night. Or call the Westin hotel directly at 303.410.5000, or Marriott reservations at 888.236.2427 and request the National Bison Association room block to reserve over the phone.

Francie M Berg

Author of the Buffalo Tales &Trails blog

Part 1. Plains Villages—Corn Culture

by | Dec 13, 2022 | Blog

Birds-eye view of a Mandan village. Painting, Photo credit SHSND 970.1C289NL

Though the Mandans, Hidatsas and Arikaras grew enormous quantities of corn, beans, squash, and sunflowers, their agricultural practices were very different from the ones farmers use today.

On-A-Slant village was built about 400 years ago near what is now Mandan, where the Heart runs into the Missouri River.

In 1915, a Hidatsa woman named Maxidiwiac (Mah HEE dee WEE ah), described to the anthropologist Gilbert Wilson her methods of growing corn.

She used traditional methods learned from her mother and generations of women before her.

Image 1: This display of original gardening tools used by the women of the three tribes shows, from top down, a digging stick, a wooden rake, a hoe made with the scapula (shoulder blade) of a bison, and a rake made with a deer’s antler. In the middle is a braid of dried corn. Photo credit SHSND 0075-0386.

Maxidiwiac was known as Waheenee (Buffalo Bird Woman) when she was a young girl. At the age of 12, she began to assist her mothers in the garden. (Hidatsa children call their birth mother and her sisters “Mother.”)

Her first job was to sit on the watchers’ stage, a platform where little girls spent the day chasing crows and little boys away from the corn.

When she grew to be a mature woman, Maxidiwiac had her own garden. She was responsible for planting, protecting, hoeing and harvesting.

As an older woman, Maxidiwiac in her garden demonstrates corn drying and storage.

Her tools were made of iron and wood, but some women still used the traditional tools made of wood handles attached to antlers for rakes or wood handles attached to bison scapulas for hoes (image 1). The ground was prepared for seeding by digging with a sharply pointed stick.

Tools were made and used by Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara women for centuries, but when European American traders began to trade with these tribes, they brought hoes and rakes made with iron.

Many women kept the old tools because they could make them from local materials and did not have to depend on traders for their tools.

Image 2: The plan for Maxidiwiac’s garden shows rows of corn (c) alternating with rows of beans (b). Between the corn/bean patches are rows of squash (sq). Sunflowers (sf) were planted around the edges. The corn was planted about 12 feet from the garden fence so that stray horses could not reach the corn by leaning over the fence.

The women gardened on river bottom land. Upland ground (where summer homes were built) was too hard and dry, but the river bottoms were soft and moist.

When the leaves emerged on the gooseberry plants, the women started to plant corn. This was in May; planting was not completed until June.

The gardens included sunflowers, beans, squash and tobacco in addition to corn.

The seeds were planted so that each plant could take advantage of the qualities of the other. Beans were planted near corn (image 2). Several varieties of squash were planted in the wide spaces between sections where different varieties of corn were planted. The broad leaves of squash shaded out the weeds.

Image 3: Gardeners tried to avoid cross-pollination of their corn plants so they could maintain the genetic purity of the corn varieties. This illustration shows that one woman would plant the same variety of corn (A) next to her neighbor’s corn (A’). B and B’ were another variety of corn. Through cooperation and planning each woman could protect her seed corn for the following year.

First, Maxidiwiac, Buffalo Bird Woman, stirred up the dirt of last year’s corn hill with her hoe. She smoothed the soil with her fingers and placed six to eight dried corn kernels from the previous year’s crop in each hole. She patted dirt over the seeds with her fingers and moved on to the next hill which was about four feet away.

Each morning, Maxidiwiac planted several rows, each 90 feet long. Other women may have planted more or less corn according to the size of their families.

If a woman was ill and could not plant, members of her social group would plant for her. If they worked together, they could complete the planting in one morning.

Maxidiwiac’s garden was about three and a-half acres in size. It was divided into sections in order to keep different varieties of corn from cross-pollinating one another (image 2).

As the corn grew, the women hoed daily to keep the weeds from taking over the garden. They made scarecrows from wood frames and old blankets to keep the crows from stealing the young corn.

In early August, Maxidiwiac looked for signs that her corn was ripe.

“The blossoms on the top of the stalk were turned brown, the silk on the end of the ear was dry, and the husks on the ear were of a dark green color.”

This was “green corn” which was boiled and eaten fresh. Green corn was considered a great treat. Later in the summer, other varieties of corn were harvested and dried on the cob or as kernels. The dried corn was saved for the family’s winter use and for trade (image 6).

Image 4: In this Hidatsa woman’s garden, beans were planted between rows of corn. Each variety of corn was planted in a patch that was separated from other varieties. Squash was planted between corn patches. A typical garden was about 3 to 5 acres in size. SHSND 0086-0307.

Seed corn was specially selected and set aside. Maxidiwiac “chose only good, full, plump ears” without any sign of disease.

She put away enough seed corn to last for two years, so that if the crop failed in the next year, she still had seed for the following year.

Maxidiwiac raised nine varieties of corn. Each type had a different use: some were better for eating fresh, others better for drying. Some corn was ground to make flour.

To maintain the purity of their corn genetics, the women kept each variety separate.

Maxidiwiac usually coordinated her planting with the woman who had the neighboring garden so that their gardens would not cross-pollinate. (See Image 3.)

Corn was an important food for the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara, and it also had spiritual quality. The people of the villages performed certain ceremonies to ensure that they would always have a good crop of corn.

Corn agriculture gave the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara a secure and reliable source of nutrition. In addition, the tribes were able to trade their surplus corn for other goods and in that way, they became wealthy.

Mothers taught their daughters how to raise corn and other crops. Women of the tribes accumulated information on methods of raising corn and maintaining the qualities of each variety.

It was women’s work, agricultural skills and knowledge that brought economic and social advantages to the tribes.

These women were braiding corn for drying. Buffalo Bird Woman usually made 100 braids of dried corn for winter storage. The braids could be hung in the earthlodge. SHSND 0086-0277.

Yellow Nose sits with her husband Bear on the Water in front of their Mandan home. She uses a mortar to pound dried corn into flour. Behind them is a pile of braided dried corn. SHSND A0126.

Section 3: Mandan and Hidatsa Horses

The Mandan and Hidatsa acquired horses at about the same time as the Lakotas did, around the middle of the 1700s (in the 18th century).

Like the Lakota, Mandan and Hidatsa made a place for horses in their culture. They found that horses were very helpful in hunting bison and allowed them to travel much farther in search of the wild herds. Work became easier.

Horses did not change traditional village organization, but the acquisition of horses became an important “calendar” date. Events were identified as having happened before or after the tribes acquired horses.

Image 5: Earthlodge. Mandan and Hidatsa lived in roomy, comfortable earthlodges. To protect their horses from raids, the men often brought their best hunting or war horses into the lodge. Women brought corn husks and stalks to feed them. The plan of this typical earthlodge, shows the small corral on the right side for horses, near the lodge door. SHSND.

Horses were so important that they soon became integrated into many village traditions.

Both men and women owned horses. However, women owned mares and foals while men owned stallions and geldings. Women had horses for riding and horses for carrying burdens.

Mandan men acquired horses through raiding the herds of their enemies, but women acquired horses through certain family or clan relationships.

A young man paid respect to a woman of his family or clan by offering her horses. When a young man went on his first horse raiding expedition, he gave the horses he captured to his eldest sister. This was a way of honoring her.

If his sister was already married, she extended that honor by offering the new horse to her husband. If a young man struck his enemy while capturing horses, he would be given a new name by an elderly woman of his father’s clan. The young man paid the woman for this honor by giving her horses.

Horses made everything easier, from hunting buffalo to moving camp and hauling garden produce for storage from the Missiouri River lowlands up the hill to Mandan and Hidatsa earthlodges.

Horses were also important in arranging a marriage between young people.

The Mandans had several systems for arranging a marriage. In one form of marriage, a young man’s family found a young woman who would make a suitable wife for their son.

The man’s parents offered horses to the parents of the young woman. If the woman’s parents agreed that the young man would make a good husband for their daughter, they accepted the horses.

The bride’s parents then gave the horses to their sons, who honored their sister (the bride) by giving the horses to her. The bride offered the horses to the father of the young man she was going to marry. In this exchange, both families acknowledged their approval of the marriage and showed respect to each family.

Mandans and Hidatsas considered horses to be a sign of wealth. The trading of horses between the families symbolized to the bride’s family that the young man came from a respectable family with enough resources to provide well for the young woman and her future children.

The young man’s family offered enough horses (wealth) to demonstrate to the bride’s family that they held the young woman in high esteem.

Horses did not come to the Mandans and Hidatsas without some notable problems.

Horses like to eat young plants and corn at any stage of growth, so they had to be kept out of the large gardens where the women of both tribes raised corn, squash, beans and sunflowers.

Women usually erected platforms in the garden where they or their children watched over the growing crops and kept horses and other garden-raiding animals away. The platforms were also used for drying corn and squash and other plants after harvest.

Horses also needed feed in the winter, especially when the snow was too deep for them to reach the grass. Usually cottonwood or willow bark served as winter feed, but finding and carrying winter feed to the horses added extra labor to ordinary winter chores.

Buffalo Bird Woman and other Hidatsa and Mandan women fed corn stalks to their horses, but also had to prevent horses from destroying the gardens.

Maxidiwiac (1839-1932) explained gardening to Gilbert Wilson around 1915, when she was a very old woman. In the following paragraphs, taken from Gilbert Wilson’s ‘Buffalo Bird Woman’s Garden,’ Maxidiwiac describes how Hidatsa gardeners adapted their gardening methods to horses.

Acquiring Horses, by Buffalo Bird Woman

“At the very first it is true, we did not own ponies; but we soon got them. I think my tribe obtained ponies from the western tribes. In my own youth we Hidatsas got many of our horses from western tribes, especially from the Crows. . .

“In the early part of the harvest season, when we plucked green corn to boil, we gathered the ears first.

“Afterwards we gathered the green stalks from which the ears had been stripped. These stalks with the leaves on them we fed to our horses, either outside the lodge, or inside, in the corral.

“We commonly husked our corn, as I have said, out in the fields, piling up the husks in a heap. After the corn was all in, we drove our horses to the field to eat both the standing fodder and the husks that lay heaped near the husking place.

“Horses readily ate corn fodder, and by the time spring came again, there was little left in the field. Not only were the husks devoured, but most of the standing stalks were eaten off nearly or quite to the ground.

 “Okĕi’jpita. . . is a small ear that sometimes appears at the top, on the tassel of the plant. Okĕi’jpita ears, if large enough, we gathered and put in with the rest of the harvest. But smaller ears of this kind, hardly worth threshing, we gathered and fed to our horses.

“Sometimes, if the harvesters were in haste, these ears were left in the field on the stalk; a pony was then led into the field to crop the ears.”

Protecting the Gardens from Horses

Bridle band. This brow band fit across the horse’s face above the eyes. It symbolized how much the owner treasured his or her horse. The brow band is made of leather decorated with dyed porcupine quills, tinkling cones and dyed feathers. This band is in the collections of the State Historical Society of North Dakota. SHSND Museum, Hoffman Collection.

“Horses did not trouble us much, as we did not permit them to graze near our garden lands. They were pastured on the prairie,” said Maxidiwiac.

“We always had fences around our fields as long ago as I know anything about and I have heard that our tribe had such fences in the villages they built at the mouth of the Knife River, to protect their fields there from their horses.

“Such, I have heard, has been our Indian custom since the world began.

“I think our fences stood 12 or 15 feet away from the cultivated ground, as I pace it here on the ground. I know no reason why they were run thus, except as I have said, to keep the horses from nibbling the corn.

“You see, 15 feet is quite a little distance; and the fence could have stood closer to the cultivated ground and still been far enough away to keep the horses from nibbling the crops. All I know is that it was a custom of my tribe and I always followed this custom if I had a fence to build.

“Pacing it off here, on the ground, the length of the stage was, I think, about so long–30 feet. Its width was about thus–12 feet.”

Image 6: Stage platforms were built for watchers to protect the gardens from horses, birds and boys as crops began to ripen. This sketch shows ladder at left, buffalo calf skin folded fur out made seat for watcher, folded to make a cushion for sitting on the uneven pole floor. A tree may be incorporated for more shade. Sketch from Bird Woman’s Book.

Three poles supported a second calf skin used as a shield against the sun. Image 6 shows three moveable poles that could be shifted to provide shade through the day.

“From the ground to the top of the stage floor was a little higher than a woman can reach with her hand, or about 6 feet, 6 inches. There were horses in the village and the stage floor must be high enough so that horses could not reach the corn.

The woman above is placing slices of squash she has threaded onto long sticks for drying. Corn and other foods as well were laid on the platforms to dry and preserve for winter eating.

“The season for watching the fields began early in August when green corn began to come in; for this was the time when the ripening ears were apt to be stolen by horses, or birds, or boys.”

Dried foods were then placed in cache pits for storage within and just outside the earthlodges which were built on plateaus higher up above the river.

Image 7: Maxidiwiac explained that she dug the cache pit like a jug—deep enough so she could just see out the top and as large as a bullboat at the bottom. Then she lined it with grass and filled it with dry corn and vegetables.

 “The pit was dug into the ground in the shape of a jug. The entrance was about 2 feet across and the size of a bullboat at the bottom. It took two or three days to dig.”

The big ones had a ladder, the smaller ones when standing on the floor, her eyes just cleared the top of the ground above. The cache was lined with a special bluish grass that did not mold.

They covered the cache and heaped earth in the pit until it was level with the ground.

“Lastly, we raked ashes and refuse dirt over the spot, to hide it from any enemy that might come prowling around in the winter, when the village was deserted.”

Smaller caches may be buried inside the lodge itself. “A cache pit lasted for a long time, used year after year,” she said.

Horses for Carrying Burdens

 “In the fall, when we went to our winter lodges, corn, squash, beans and whatever else was needed, we loaded on our horses and took with us. As soon as we came to our winter lodge we made ready a cache pit at once and stored these things away.

“We Hidatsas did not like to have the dung of animals in our fields. The horses we turned into our gardens in the fall dropped dung and where they did so, we found little worms and insects.

“We also noted that where dung fell, many kinds of weeds grew up the next year. We did not like this, and carefully cleaned off the dried dung, picking it up by hand and throwing it 10 feet or more beyond the edge of the garden plot.

“We did likewise with the droppings of white men’s cattle, after they were brought to us.

“I do not know that the worms in the manure did any harm to our gardens, but because we thought it bred worms and weeds, we did not like to have any dung on our garden lands and we therefore removed it.”

Horses brought significant changes to the Mandans and Hidatsas, but having them did not change the fundamental organization of the two tribes.

Although horses also gave them greater mobility, the two tribes continued to live in permanent villages. The Mandans and Hidatsas, like the Arikaras who joined them later, incorporated horses into their long-standing traditions.

Gilbert Wilson wrote Buffalo Bird Woman’s Garden after long conversations with Maxidiwiac about the gardens of Hidatsa women.
 Buffalo Bird Woman’s Garden: As Recounted by Maxi’diwiac (Buffalo Bird Woman—Waheenee 1839-1932) of the Hidatsa Indian Tribe. Originally published as Agriculture of the Hidatsa Indians: An Indian Interpretation. Edited by Gilbert L Wilson, 1868-1930. http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/buffalo/garden/garden.html#XI

______________________________________________________________________________

NEXT: Blog 74 Happy Holidays—Dec 27

Francie M Berg

Author of the Buffalo Tales &Trails blog

Pin It on Pinterest