Supermarket bushcraft

[Ozhaggishead]

I'm was reading old book on the plains Indians and I came across this.Here is a list of what the plains Indians made from the buffalo they hunted on the plains.Something to think about next time you go shopping at k-mart or woolworths
CLOTHING
Ropes
Capes with ear flaps
Moccasins
Leggings
Mitts
Shirt
Coat and Capes
Dresses
Belt
Underclothes
Broadcloth's
Head dress ornament
TIPI AND FURNISHINGS
Tipi Cover
Tippi door flaps
Tipi linings
Bed covers
Catch pit covers
Tipi ornaments
Medicine case
Trunks
CEREMONIAL OBJECTS
Sun dancer alters
Rattle
Horse mask
winding sheep for dead
RECREATIONAL EQUIPMENT
Ice sled runners
dice
Ball stuffing
Ball covering
Netting for lacrosse hoops
RIDEING AND TRANSPORTATION GEAR
Burden straps
Framed saddle covers
Pad saddle covers
saddle rigging straps
Stirrup covers
Cruppers
Parfleches
Saddle bags
Double saddle bags
Tobacco pouches
Bury bags
Bridles
Honda rings
Hackamores
Lariats
Picket ropes
Hobbles
Saddle blankets
Travois
Pole hitches
Miscellaneous tie strings
Horse blanket
Horse watering troughs
Horse shoe
Raft
Snow shoe
Shield
Bow backings
WEAPONS
Bow string
Arrow head
Arrowhead with feather wrapping
Powder flask
Cover and hafting for war clubs
Ornaments for clubs
Knife sheaths
Arrow straighteners
TOOLA AND UTENSILS
Fleshing tool
Meat and bury ponders and hafting
Hose
Maul's hafting
Cooking vessel
Water bucket
Spoon
Ladel
Knife
Hairbrush
Fuel
Fly brushes
Glue
Tanning agent
Soap
Thread
Sewing Awls
Hide scraper
Paintbrush
Quill flatteners
Tool for dehairing rope
Very

 

[jojo]

Yes, they were indeed very capable people. That almost exclusive reliance on one animal was their demise in the end when the white man came to realise it. When they willfully destroyed the Buffalo herds, they destroyed the Native People's entire way of life.

But it is amazing what they could achieve from that single source. Did you mention food or did I miss it?

 

[Forest fella]

I think our modern culture can learn much about the uses for the whole animal,As the Native Americans wasted virtually nothing of there kills,As haggis hunter has shown

 

[Sniper]

Our ancestors did the same with their prey animals, and included shells from shellfish, they ate the meat and used the shells for scrapers or adornements depending on species. The whole of a deer would be utilised and the same with boar. Trouble nowadays is all this sanitised food stuffs and no offal, they don't even hang the meat properly either so much of the flavour of the old days has gone.

 

[bushwacker bob]

Yep. The Scots do similar with sheep, hence all the stuff you wouldnt want to eat is stuffed into a bit of guts and called haggis.

 

[Sniper]

We eat deep fried Mars bars too

 

[bushwacker bob]

We eat deep fried Mars bars too

enough said

 

[webbie]

and from a very famous movie "a ate a baby"

but it just shows how muhc is wasted these days, even compared to a few decades ago

 

[Mike Ameling]

Yes, those Indians could be very creative/industrious in their use of an animal - especially when those buffalo were scarce. But when they were plentiful, those Indians could be just as wastefull as many modern people. They were often recorded as hunting buffalo and only taking the tongue and hump ribs for a feast - leaving the rest for the scavengers. And a major hunting method was the "buffalo jump" - a cliff where they ran a big part of the herd over the edge. Only a small portion of the dead/injured animals were ever used from the bottom of that "jump".

When "food" was plentiful, they feasted and wasted just like people from most other areas of the world. When it was scarce, they conserved and used every bit they could. So in this matter, they were very similar to most everybody else in the world - no unique.

Plus keep in mind that most of the Great Plains was uninhabited until the Indians got horses which allowed them to travel out into those vast prairies. They got those horses from those brought over by the Spanish down in the Southwest - since there were no horses native to the Americas before European contact. The Indian tribes only skirted the very edges of the Great Plains - until they got horses. Those horses only started to spread up into the tribes starting around 1700 - until most tribes in the West had horses by the late 1700's. So that "plains Indian culture" only had a couple generations of development before pressure from the White man came to bear. Also, those major Great Plains Indian tribes had all moved there from other areas - mostly East of the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers or up from Mexico. Other Indian tribes out East had driven them out and West, and those tribes dealing with the Spanish drove other tribes North.

There is a lot of ... myth ... associated with the North American Indians, where they lived, and how they lived.

What those Indian tribes could do was very commendible. But the same can be said of most settlers/farmers back in the mid 1900's and earlier. One classic old farmer saying was that they would use every part of a pig except the sqeal. And look at how many made their own pillows and bed ticks from feathers from their chickens and ducks. Blood Sausage even made use of something most often lost when butchering an animal. Haggis is just one version of sausage made from the internal organs. And then there is Head Cheese - boiling/scraping a pig's head to save every bit of meat/fat/brains to make up a version of sausage.

So goes life.

Mikey - that grumpy ol' German blacksmith out in the Hinterlands

 

[Ozhaggishead]

You make a fair point Mikey and a lot of this history has been made into a myth and some story's are left untold.But that said,If I had to take sides I always take side with natives over the settelers.