The Indians of the Pike's Peak Region: Including an Account of the Battle of Sand Creek, and of Occurrences in El Paso County, Colorado, during the War with the Cheyennes and Arapahoes, in 1864 and 1868 — John Shaqi
The Indians of the Pike's Peak Region: Including an Account of the Battle of Sand Creek, and of Occurrences in El Paso County, Colorado, during the War with the Cheyennes and Arapahoes, in 1864 and 1868Howbert, Irving
History
The Indians of the Pike's Peak Region: Including an Account of the Battle of Sand Creek, and of Occurrences in El Paso County, Colorado, during the War with the Cheyennes and Arapahoes, in 1864 and 1868
Howbert, Irving
El Paso County, Colo. -- History; Indians of North America -- Colorado; Sand Creek Massacre, Colo., 1864
The Utes, Comanches, Kiowas, Sioux, Cheyennes, and Arapahoes used
the conical wigwam, which was easily erected and quickly taken down.
The conical wigwam consisted of a framework of small pine poles about
two and one-half inches in diameter and twenty feet in length. In its
erection, three poles were tied together about two or three feet from
the smaller end; the three poles were then set up, their bases forming a
triangle sufficiently far apart to permit of a lodge about twenty feet
in diameter. The remaining sixteen to eighteen poles used were then
placed in position to form a circle, their bases about four feet apart
and their tops resting in the fork of the three original poles. Among
the plains Indians, where buffalo were plentiful, the covering for this
framework consisted of buffalo skins which had been tanned and sewed
together by the squaws. It was so shaped that a flap could be thrown
back at the top, leaving an opening through which the smoke could escape,
and another at the bottom for use as a door. The bottom of this covering
was secured by fastening it to small stakes driven into the ground. All
of the bedding, buffalo robes, and other belongings of the Indians were
taken into the wigwam and piled around the sides; a small hole was then
dug in the center of the earthern floor, in which the fire was built.
In taking down the tents, preparatory to moving about the country, the
squaws removed the covering from the framework, and folded it into a
compact bundle; they took the poles down and laid them in two parallel
piles three or four feet apart, and then led a pony in between them. The
upper end of each pile was fastened to the pack-saddle, leaving the other
end to drag upon the ground. Just back of the pony's tail the covering
of the tent was fastened to the two sets of poles, on top of which the
babies and small children were placed. In this way the Indians moved
their camps from place to place. The squaws did all the work of making
these tent coverings, procuring the poles, setting up the tents, and
taking them down. The warrior never lifted his hand to help, as it was
beneath the dignity of a warrior to do any kind of manual labor.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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