71 



INDIANS Ol I III-. PLAINS 



Household Utensils. In a preceding section, re- 

 ference was made to baskets, which in parts of the Pla- 

 teau area on the west, often served as pots for boiling 

 food. They were not, of course, set upon the fire, the 



water within being heated by hot -tone-. Pottery was 

 made by the Hidatsa, Mandan.and Ankara, and probably 

 by all the other tribe's of the Village group. There i< 

 some historical evidence that it was once made by the 

 Blackfool and there are traditions of its use among the 

 Gros Ventre, Cheyenne, and Assiniboin; but, with the 

 possible exception of the Blackfoot, it has not been 

 definitely credited to any of the nine typical tribes. 



We have no definite information as to how foods were 

 boiled among these non-pottery making tribes before 

 traders introduced kettles. Many tribes, however, 

 knew how to hang a fresh paunch upon sticks and boil 

 in it with stones (Fig. 30). Some used a fresh skin in a 

 hole. Thus Catlin says: — 



There is a very curious custom amongst the Assinneboins, from 



which they have taken their name; a name given them by their neigh- 

 bors, from a singular mode they have of boiling their meat, which is 

 done in the following manner: — when they kill meat, a hole is dug in 

 the ground about the size of a common pot, and a piece of the raw hide 

 of the animal, as taken from the back, is put over the hole, and then 

 pressed down with the hands close around the sides, and filled with 

 water. The meat to be boiled is then put in this hole or pot of water; 

 and in a fire which is built near by. several large stones are heated to a 

 red heat, which are successively dipped and held in the water until 

 the meal is boiled; from which singular and peculiar custom, the < >jibbe- 

 ways have given them t he appellation of Assinneboins or stone boilers... 

 The Traders have recently supplied these people with pots; and 

 even long before that, the Mandans had instructed them in the secret 

 of manufacturing very good and serviceable earthen pots; which to- 

 gether have entirely done away with the custom, excepting at public 



