Hall County NEGenWeb
Reminiscences & Narratives of Pioneers
PREPARING CLOTHING AND MEATS

[Return to the Index]

Transcribed from
the ©1920 "History of Hall County," by Buechler, Barr, and Stough

Their moccasins were made up as micely as they possibly could be. The squaws would do all such work; the Indian would know nothing about it. The squaws would make all of the moccasins, and some of them were splendid articles. The squaws would also tan all of the beaver hides and skins. The Indian only had to hunt and be the warrior. It was for him to go out and shoot the buffalo, elk, deer, antelope, and to bring home the material from which the squaws made the clothes and prepared the meat. In this last operation they were rather skillful.

They dried buffalo meat by cutting it into slices, cross-wise of the grain. These very thin slices were then salted and placed in a barrel of brine and left in that brine, maybe two nights. They used a wire, or sinew line, possibly thirty or forty feet in length, and hung the slices in the sun to dry, for about twenty-four hours, then had meat so it was ready for use.