INDIAN DWE'LLINGS WATERMAN 465 



This was the foundation of the tent. Additional poles were care- 

 fully laid in place, the woman — for this was women's work — tossinf!^ 

 a turn or hitch of the rope over each new pole and binding the 

 Avhole firmly together. Certain tribes, like the Blackfeet, used four 

 poles, not three, for the foundation of the tipi. In any case, the 

 finished framework was a smooth conical structure of bare poles. 

 Tlie cover was next hoisted into place and stretched around the 

 framework, being pegged down to the ground all around. Where 

 the two edges of the cover met in front, a set of long slender wooden 

 skewers were used to fasten them together. The cover was so shaped 

 that at the top of the tent there was an opening left for the escape 

 of the smoke, and flanking the smoke hole were two flaps known as 

 "ears." Into a pocket at the tip of each ear was inserted a long 

 slender pole, and these poles leaned against the tent, the lower ends 

 extending back of the structure and resting upon the ground. With 

 the help of these two poles the " ears " were moved this way or that, 

 according to the direction of the wind. A tipi without "ears " is an 

 impossible dwelling, for it will not draw properly and will certainly 

 be filled with smoke a large part of the time. The experienced house- 

 wife will, if the tipi gets smoky on a gusty day, slip outside, and, 

 with the skill of long practice, shift the direction of the ears a little. 

 When a family shifts its quarters, the tipi is quicky struck, the 

 cover rolled up, and two of the longest poles crossed like a V over the 

 back of a pony, the ends trailing on the ground and constituting a 

 travois. The family property, the cover, and the extra poles are 

 loaded on the travois and dragged away. Sometimes the tents of a 

 whole village would be struck at the same instant, and in a few 

 minutes each family would be loaded up, and the procession ready to 

 start. 



Not infrequently the earth was excavated a little in the center of 

 the tipi and piled around the edge. Indians lived in such structures 

 during the coldest weather, even in Dakota. Curiously enough, tipis 

 are described as being, on the whole, warm and comfortable. The 

 Indians have a special knack for picking out suitable sites. There 

 is many a spot in corners of the rolling plains country where, in the 

 lee of a hill or tucked away under cover of the cottonwoods which 

 border a creek, there is shelter from the full rigors of winter. In 

 liard weather the great Indian encampments broke up, the families 

 moving hither or thither, wherever they could find a spot sheltered 

 from the wind. 



The distribution of this type of dwelling within the historical 

 period was dependent upon the distribution of the buffalo. A whole 

 tribe would sometimes hang on the flanks of a buffalo herd, moving 

 as the herd moved. The horse had the effect of making the Plains 



