Note 310 — Chapter XXV · ACCOUNT OF THE MANDAN INDIANS (continued 2)

The economy of the buffalo in the life of the plains Indians is well known; its flesh was the staple for food, its skin for shelter, dress, and utensils of many sorts, its horn for implements, and its sinews for strings and thread. The sedentary aborigines of the Missouri were scarcely less dependent upon this animal than their plains kinsmen, their agricultural products forming but a small supplement to the food supply. Hunting the buffalo was thus the chief employment of the male Indians. For this purpose guns were but little used, they being reserved for war or occasional encounters with grizzly bears. Compare descriptions of Mandan buffalo hunts in Original Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, i, pp. 234, 278; Henry-Thompson Journals, i, pp. 336, 337; Palliser, Solitary Rambles (London, 1853), pp. 111-114; and Boller, Among the Indians, pp. 78-80.—Ed.