CORRAL DUST 



That nearest tepee is of buffalo hide — most all were 

 buffalo hide in the old days — but now a buffalo-hide 

 tepee is rarer than the buffalo itself and brings a higher 

 price than many a small modern house will fetch. It 

 is also a fact that some of the native American cos- 

 tumes are far more valuable than those made by many 

 a king's tailor. The eagle feathers of a fine war- 

 bonnet, which may number fifty to sixty, are valued 

 at anywhere from two to five dollars a plume accord- 

 ing to size and quality. Then there is the exquisite, 

 solid beadwork of vest, trousers, belt and moccasins. 



Every "tepee," which term is often used to mean a 

 family, preserves carefully its ceremonial costumes, 

 including among the possessions of the old people, no 

 doubt, a number of those symbols of the victories over 

 enemy tribes and the paleface — scalps. But these tro- 

 phies are never brought to light as far as the white 

 man is concerned. 



It has been for many years the custom in the North- 

 west for communities to invite in the Indians for the 

 Fourth of July celebrations to such an extent that this 

 anniversary of our Independence Day is observed by 

 the Indians as their Shapatkan. At this time they 

 pitch a village of seventy-five or eighty encircling 

 tepees on their reservation and attire themselves as of 

 old, and at night by the light of their campfires you 

 behold flashlight glimpses of tableaux of a passing 

 people. In fact Shapatkan has become a real Indian 

 ceremonial, a celebration by the former owners of this 

 country in honor of the freedom of its present occu- 

 pants. 



Here a wigwam is open ; you know the family is at 

 home because the noose of the lap is not run through 

 with little sticks. Glenn Bushee, that white man there, 



s 81 



