Winter Living

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The change of seasons brought changes in lifestyle to most Native American groups. Before industrialization, most societies lived seasonally, with certain tasks being relegated for certain times of the year…spring and summer to plant, grow crops, hunt, and so on, and with autumn a time for harvesting and storing up. Winter was generally a quieter time, with less hunting and gathering. Hard-working people could take some time to rest, and to prepare for the next year.

Iroquois Longhouse

Native Americans dependent on agriculture usually had more stable villages, though they might move to a winter hunting area for a season. Some tribes, such as the Iroquois,  built large, permanent structures called longhouses. These homes could be 200 feet long, have a second story, and house more than 50 people. Native Americans on the Plains moved much more often to follow buffalo herds, and their housing reflected the mobility they needed. These tribes set up tepees (or tipis) that could be quickly raised and struck down.

During the winter, people could relax a bit, but they still stayed busy. Trapping would still be profitable in some areas, and people in winter camps could mend needed items for the next year, sew clothing, etc. Festivals were held in winter, which was also a time for storytelling and consultation concerning hunting or wartime strategies. Though winter could be a time of harshness and deprivation, it could also be a time of joy and play. Native peoples in the north and in Alaska enjoyed snowshoes and sledding, and a game with “snow snakes.” A snow stake was a carved piece of wood with a slight upward curve at one end and a notch at the other. Before play, teams would make a trough in the snow by dragging a log through it over and over. Players would throw their snakes along the trough as fast as possible so it would go far. Each player’s distance was measured and would be added to the team score; the team with the total longest distance won the game.

Cheyenne Winter Camp

Snow Snake Game

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Winter and Scarcity

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Buffalo Hunting for Money

Like many peoples dependent upon agriculture and hunting, Native Americans could face scarcity and deprivation if crops were poor or hunting was bad. If tribes had a regional primary food source, such as corn in parts of the Southwest or buffalo on the Plains, anything that tipped the balance against them had enormous ramifications. Losing good land hurt tribes dependent upon agriculture, and over-hunting hurt others more dependent on meat for winter survival. Many times, the intrusion of white settlers tipped the balance against Native American food security.

Native Americans on the Plains used almost every part of the buffalo, and its meat was critically important for survival. Originally, buffalo seemed to be limitless in number–some scientists estimate they may have numbered as high as 30 million before European settlers came to the continent–but several factors served to drive them to near extinction.:

–Native Americans were able to kill many more buffalo than they previously could, once they acquired horses and guns.

–Buffalo were forced to compete with horses and cattle, while ranchers killed many buffalo to clear land for cattle.

–Railroads required cleared land for trains, and workers killed many buffalo for food.

–Some buffalo were deliberately killed out of spite or as a policy to decimate the Plains’ best food source.

–Hunters and sport shooters slaughtered buffalo for the thrill of downing these enormous animals.

By the late 1990s, there were only two thousand or so buffalo left.

Last Buffalo Killed in N. Dakota (Jan 1907), courtesy Library of Congress Fred Hulstrand and F.A. Pazandak Photograph Collections

Pile of Buffalo Skulls To Be Ground Into Fertilizer, circa 1870s, courtesy Burton Historical Collection, Detroit Public Library

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Agriculture at the Asylum

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Herd Pasturing on Wild Hay, 1910, courtesy Minnesota Historical Society

The Canton Asylum for Insane Indians did not depend on its gardens and livestock for survival, but the dairy products, fresh meat, and fresh produce they produced made meals more bountiful and nourishing. Dr. Harry Hummer depended upon them to keep his costs down, and failures were disappointing to both his self-esteem and his goal of running a tight (economic) ship. Hummer was a micromanager, though, and his interference probably added to whatever problems the site had due to weather and soil conditions.

Dr. Hummer’s unreasonableness was well-known, and a farmer on staff complained once that the doctor expected him to get a spring garden in (sow seed) while the field for it was under a foot of water. A few years later, the asylum lost its potato and corn crops due to drought and excessive heat, an unpreventable loss that has regrettably always been part of the farmer’s lot. Despite these setbacks, Hummer embraced farming and raising livestock wholeheartedly. Many of his letters to various commissioners of Indian Affairs requested more buildings and equipment to expand these operations, and he was generally praised for his efforts in these areas. Either Hummer concentrated on farming because it was more rewarding than trying to cure his patients, or because he was so concerned about economy that he was willing to neglect his patients to spend time on these non-patient concerns.

Wheat Field, Kearney Nebraska, 1908, courtesy Library of Congress

Effects of Drought on Corn near Russelville, Arkansas, 1936, by Dorothea Lange, courtesy Library of Congress

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Winter on the Plains

Homesteaders in North Dakota

Though its topography varied from region to region, the area known as the western Plains could be counted on to have a harsh environment. Summer temperatures often reached 100 degrees, and winter temperatures well into the double-digits below zero. Without many trees to stop or break the wind, heavy snows could be blinding and treacherous. South Dakota, one of the Plains states and home to the Canton Asylum for Insane Indians, experienced difficult weather that brought out its inhabitants’ resourcefulness and courage.

The Lakota and Dakota Sioux, native peoples who had lived on the Plains for centuries, were nomadic. During the winter they lived in buffalo-hide tents (tipis) and ate the food supplies they had gathered and preserved earlier. These supplies could be enormous. An account of General Alfred Sully’s 1863 retaliation against the Dakota for an uprising in 1862 says that his troops burned 500,000 pounds of “jerked buffalo meat, food gathered for the Indians’ long winter” over a two-day period. The melted fat “ran down the valley like a stream,” according to one observer.

This abundance contrasts sorrowfully with the rations most native peoples received once they were forced onto reservations. By the 1880s, game was scarce and the buffalo nearly gone. Iron Teeth, a 92-year-old Cheyenne woman, described her monthly rations: a quart of green coffee, a quart of sugar, a few pounds of flour, and some baking powder. In 1883, winter storms left some of the northern tribes in Montana near starvation. When a government wagon finally got through, it delivered only a load of bacon contaminated by maggots.

Annuity Payment at La Pointe, Wisconsin, 1870, courtesy of Wisconsin Historical Society

Waiting for Rations, circa 1905, courtesy Wannamker Collection, Mathers Museum Indiana University

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Garden Problems

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A South Dakota Farm During the Depression

A South Dakota Farm During the Depression

Many insane asylums had gardens which grew both flowers and produce. The Canton Asylum for Insane Indians included a garden that provided supplemental fresh food for staff and patients, but sometimes with indifferent results.

South Dakota was subject to harsh and unpredictable weather, with great temperature swings at times, drought, and pests. Continue reading →

Dietary Considerations

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Drying Corn at Laguna, New Mexico, circa 1916, courtesy Yearbook of the United States Department of Agriculture 1918

All asylums operated within budgets, and most had to make difficult choices about which services and personnel to provide and which to skimp on or delete. One reason (among several) that early asylums used patient labor was because it saved money that could then be used elsewhere. Asylum gardens were extremely important to some institutions; they often subsidized food allotments which would have often been inadequate. Dr. Harvey Black, superintendent of Southwestern Lunatic Asylum, wanted three things for his asylum: good food, comfortable clothing, and enough ward attendants. His facility and many others, raised corn, potatoes, and a variety of vegetables; some institutions were able to tend fruit orchards as well.

Patients at the Canton Asylum for Insane Indians helped raise these same items, but wintertime presented a problem for them as it did for the general population. Potatoes, corn, and other starchy vegetables were easy enough to store, but fresh greens and fruits would have disappeared for the winter. Some dried fruits may have been available, but records do not seem to indicate much activity in the way of canning or drying at the asylum. A diet of meat and primarily starchy vegetables could have led to many different health issues, and patients at the Canton Asylum seem to have had a leaning toward sugar addiction. One inspector wrote in 1916: “The only suggestion that I would make, with reference to the ration allowance, is that the supply of sugar be increased. The patients, for some reason, consume more sugar than normal people . . . I have observed this abnormal craving for sugar by patients in other asylums.”

Sugar cravings can indicate thyroid problems, yeast infections,adrenal overload, depression, and a variety of other conditions.The inspector’s comments indicate that something physical was probably going on with the patients at Canton Asylum in addition to any mental issues they may have had.

Women's Sewing Room at Maryland Hospital for the Insane, 1910s, courtesy Spring Grove Hospital Center

Men's Industrial Shop at Maryland Hospital for the Insane, circa 1900, courtesy Spring Grove Hospital Center

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Valuable Plants

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Arikira Medicine Ceremony, 1908, Edward S. Curtis

Though produce and meat constituted the bulk of regularly preserved and stored food, other plants and herbs were also important to Native Americans. Many modern consumers know the benefits of teas made from chamomile, mint, and and sage, for example, and newcomers to the continent brought medicinal plants with them both on purpose or by accident when seeds hopped rides with cargo. Peoples throughout the world have relied on the plant world for their medicines, and still do where big pharmaceutical companies have not made inroads or aren’t trusted. Patent medicines–typically vegetable extracts with plentiful amounts of alcohol, opium, or cocaine–were popular in the U.S. as early as the 1700s. However, most native peoples and settlers favored plant preparations which had some validated success.

During the Civil War, the Confederate Army relied on plant-based remedies to such an extent that it commissioned a study of herbal medicines, Resources of the Southern Fields and Forests by Francis Porcher, to aid their treatment of soldiers. Doctors used onion and garlic from the allium family for their antibacterial effectiveness with injuries. The reasons behind many herbal remedies weren’t clearly understood at the time, but doctors realized that these plants facilitated recovery for soldiers with wounds and skin infections. Yarrow was an effective blood-stopping agent. Soldiers themselves used American pennyroyal as an insect repellent by rubbing the fresh plant over their skin. Unfortunately, alcohol and opiates continued to hold a powerful position with military doctors, as did harmful mercury-based products like calomel.

Medicinal Recipes circa 1871

Confederate Study of Medicinal Plants

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Prepping for Winter

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Drying Saskatoon Berries

A good vegetable harvest was important for many tribes, but all Native Americans did not practice agriculture and reap harvests  at the end of a growing season. These tribes still had to provide for winter food, when game was more scarce. Drying food was still an important method of preservation, with dried meat and fish providing quality protein sources when hunting became difficult.

One nutrient-rich dish Native Americans created was pemmican. Rich in protein and fat, pemmican was both filling and calorie and nutrient dense. It was portable and long lasting–an ideal ration for scouts, hunters, and others who needed to be away from camp for any length of time. Various recipes existed, based on what was available, but a basic recipe used extremely lean meat, dried fruit without  pits, rendered fat, nuts, and perhaps a touch of honey. The meat was dried until it was nearly crispy, after which it was ground or pounded into a powder. The dried fruit (also ground) would be added, and then the liquid fat. The ingredients would be mixed by hand along with any nuts or seeds desired, and then allowed to cool. Pemmican could be rolled out into thin strips or made into small wafers or balls that were easy to eat as snacks. This mixture–prepared properly–could last for years, especially if a little salt was added.

Making Pemmican

Pounding Pemmican

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Horror Story

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Native American Storytelling

Native Americans did not celebrate Halloween rituals as Europeans did, but they passed on stories about spirits and ghosts. The following story is adapted from the Zuni tale, “Rolling Skull” on angelfire.com, Native American Legends, Myths, and Lore:

One day, a young man who was a great hunter found himself far away from home when it became dark and rainy. He saw smoke coming from a house and thought that he could find shelter there. An old woman let him in and offered him food. Later, she offered him her beautiful daughter for the night. The man agreed and went to sleep with the daughter. When he woke up, the house was only an old ruin and his blanket was just a rag. The woman he had slept with was a skeleton, and her bones rattled as he jumped up in fear and ran away. As he ran, he heard the old woman’s skull rolling behind him.

The man sought help from the Hawiku, who were dancing the yaya dance. But, as he joined the dance, the old woman’s skull rolled into the group of dancers and cried out, “Where is my daughter’s husband?” The hunter ran to the Navajo dancing a war dance, but the same thing happened. He ran to the Laguna dancing the harvest dance, and the same thing happened. The old woman’s skull rolled behind him everywhere he sought help or protection. The bluebird and the sunflower couldn’t help him, but finally the hunter reached Porcupine.

Porcupine gave the man pinon gum and told him to cover the door thickly with it. When the old woman’s skull cried out for her daughter’s husband, Porcupine told her to come and get him. The skull rolled in and stuck fast to the pinon gum. Porcupine set fire to the pinon gum and skull and burned it up. The man then stayed with Porcupine and married Porcupine Girl.

Though the story is simple, the hunter’s panic is palpable in the longer version, and the eeriness of the old woman’s skull more pronounced.

Zuni Pueblo-Pack Train, courtesy Smithsonian Institution and the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center

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Trading With a New Country

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A Fur Trading Post

The newly created United States knew that it needed to promote trade to flourish as a nation. Congressional members also understood that Native Americans were important trade partners who had been cheated or otherwise treated unfairly by unscrupulous traders in the past. The new government created Acts to regulate trading, and by 1790, prohibited trade or commerce with Native American tribes unless the traders were licensed by the government. A license to trade required a $1,000 bond, a huge amount of money.

George Washington recognized that a great deal of ill will had been generated by both unfair trade practices and white encroachment on Indian land. In his fourth annual address, he said, “I cannot dismiss the subject of Indian affairs without again recommending to your consideration . . . for giving energy to the laws . . . for restraining the commission of outrages upon the Indians.”

Washington’s idea was to employ government agents to reside among Indians to promote peace and good relations. Though this may have been a laudable  idea, he also fell in with the accepted racism of the time. He also wanted a plan “for promoting civilization among the friendly tribes” as well as for promoting trade with them.

George Washington Indian Peace Medal

Join, or Die by Benjamin Franklin United Colonies Against Britain

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