Hall County NEGenWeb
Reminiscences & Narratives of Pioneers
THE INDIAN'S CAMP

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

In establishing their camp, the Indians we had through here generally took a lot of those poles the ponies had been pulling all day. They stuck these in the ground and brought the ends together, with the bottoms scattered enough, so they circled around at the bottom and came together at a common point at top. This made a cone-shaped frame-work for the tent. Then they would use for covering sufficient buffalo robes to form sides to the cone-shaped tent.

This buffalo robe they had made from the hides they tanned before then. These were sewed together inasmuch as neccessary with sinews they had pulled out of the flesh of the buffaloes. They used these sinews for thread. They also used them for making bow strings and for whatever threads they needed for their usual purposes. Those sinews were a dried fiber out of the buffalo's back, right down the middle of the back, and were three or four feet long. They would open that part of the flesh and pull them out. They would put that in water and clean the blood off, and dry it in the sun and pull out into threads; and they would twist that into plenty of good strong strings. It made a good strong thread. It was strong and durable as any silk thread you could get. They made the bufflo hides with this threads, also use it for making blankets and mocassins. The squaws did all of this work.