* 
_ ous other purposes. The skins were used by the Sioux Indi 
beautiful scarfs “ingeniously made. of the hair of bears and: 
_ kaskia, November 9th, 1712, he says, “the chase and war are 
88 THE FORMER RANGE OF THE BUFFALO. 
occupations of the Indians, says, “they hunt cattle, deer, turkeys; 
cats, a kind of tiger, and other animals, of which they reckon 
twenty-two kinds, and forty kinds of game and birds.” * a 
The buffalo was of incalculable benefit to the Indians. Of the 
hoofs and horns they manufactured glue. The tallow was an arti- 
cle of commerce and was used for various purposes, among which 
was that of mixing with Indian meal to make sagamity. : 
tongue was considered a delicacy and the “jerked” beef served — 
them for bread and meat. Of the skins the Indians made robes 
for beds or the floor of the cabin, or for blankets at night. Chg 
the raw hide they cut thin strips for making snow shoes and vark 
for covering for their lodges and the modern Mandans strete l 
raw buffalo hide over a wicker frame, and thus, using it as & substi- 
tute for birch bark, make a light, portable boat similar in construc 
tion to that of the coracle of the ancient Britons, or the Esquimaux 
kaiak.t They also made spoons and ladles of the horns, and, 
cording to Marquette, the Illinois Indians used the bones for the 
same purpose. He says, “they made all their dishes of wood: 
their spoons of the bones of the buffalo, which they cut 5° bi 
that it serves them to eat their sagamity easily.” The chiefs Y 
oxen.” i 
From Father Marest we learn that these scarfs were made ? 
the women, also the mats for wigwams. In a letter dated Ki 
sole occupations of the men, while the rest of the labor falls u 
the women and girls. They are the persons who prepare 
ground for sowing, do the cooking, pound the corn, build the 
wams, and carry them on their shoulders in their journeys. pae 
wigwams are constructed of mats made of platted reeds W 
they have the skill to sew together in such a way that the: 
cannot penetrate them when they are new. Besides these th 
they occupy themselves in manufacturing articles from bu 
hair, and in making bands, belts and sacks, for the buffaloes” 
are very different from our cattle in Europe. Besides ha 
large hump on the back of the shoulders they are also om 
covered with a fine wool, which our Indians manufacture 10° 
*Ibid, p. 75. 
_ {See Dr. Wilson’s Prehistoric man. p. 115. 
