174« IN THE OLD WEST 



mounted on the same horse, or the smallest of the 

 latter borne in the dog travees. A set of lodge- 

 poles will last from three to seven years, unless 

 the village is constantly on the move, when they 

 are soon worn out in trailing over the gravelly 

 prairie. They are usually of ash, which grows 

 on many of the mountain creeks, and regular ex- 

 peditions are undertaken when a supply is re- 

 quired, either for their own lodges, or for trading 

 with those tribes who inhabit the prairies at a 

 great distance from the locality where the poles 

 are procured. 



There are also certain creeks where the Indians 

 resort to lay in a store of kinnik-kinnik (the inner 

 bark of the red willow),* which they use as a 

 substitute for tobacco, and which has an aro- 

 matic and very pungent flavor. It is prepared for 

 smoking by being scraped in thin curly flakes from 

 the slender saplings, and crisped before the fire, 

 after which it is rubbed between the hands, into 

 a form resembling leaf-tobacco, and stored in 

 skin bags for use. It has a highly narcotic ef- 

 fect on those not habituated to its use, and pro- 

 duces a heaviness sometimes approaching stupe- 

 faction, altogether different from the soothing 

 effects of tobacco. 



Every year, owing to the disappearance of the 

 buffalo from their former haunts, the Indians are 

 compelled to encroach upon each other's hunting- 



* Red osier dogwood. {Ed.) 



