Women's Work Is Never Done

The Plains Indians lived with constant exposure to the elements, to hunger and to attacks by enemy tribes. When these nomadic peoples moved their camp site, the men rode on the outside or ahead of the group ready to defend their families against any threat of attack and to look for game along the way. The women took down the tipi and packed their possessions on the horses and travois; small children rode with their mothers in a cradleboard or sometimes the cradleboards were tied firmly to the travois, older children often rode their own horses. (Before the acquisition of the horse, the women packed their belongings on the backs of dogs or on dog drawn travois.) And it was the women who unpacked and pitched the tipi and set up housekeeping at the next campsite. Apart from being a wife and mother, this strenuous work was done in addition to their daily homemaking duties of gathering firewood, cooking food, fetching water and making and repairing clothes, moccasins, tipis and manufacturing household items. 

Although early Plains Indian women had no voice in tribal affairs, they ran the home and had certain rights. For one thing the women decided where their tipi was to be pitched in the camp circle, and for another, they virtually owned all of its contents, as well as the horses they packed when camp was moved. According to historical accounts, if a woman had a grievance, she was likely to speak up and stand her ground. 

The primary task of early Plains women revolved around providing food for her family. The harvesting of buffalo was the responsibility of the man, but once the game was harvested, it became the property of the woman. The women of the encampment often followed the men on a buffalo hunt. They waited by their travois until the harvesting was finished and then they would rush down to start skinning and cutting up the meat. Each carcass had to be quickly attended to in order to prevent spoilage, especially during the summer months. The women, skilled in cutting the buffalo hide away from the meat, were careful not to damage the hide in the process. Before the hides cooled and became to stiff, the women quickly scraped the buffalo hides clean of fat and tissue. They wrapped the meat in fresh buffalo hides and took it back to camp on their travois. The men might help with the heaviest work such as turning the animal over, but processing the meat and tanning the hide were primarily the women's responsibility. If the hunters had to travel some distance to where the herd had migrated, the men did the butchering and carried the hide and the meat back to camp where the women waited for their return. 

After they scraped the hide, the women pegged it flat to the ground or laced it to a four-sided frame that set up vertically. The hide was then put aside until the women had time to work with it. The meat was cut up for boiling or sliced into strips and dried into jerky, or pounded to make pemmican. Pemmican was a winter staple which was processed by mixing pounded meat with melted buffalo fat, marrow, pine-nuts and berries. 

The massive buffalo hides were either made into rawhide for tying all kinds of equipment together or they were tanned. Being an expert tanner was regarded as one of the most prized skills among women. Plains Indian women tanned each hide using a time-process depending on what the hide was going to be used for. Hides that had been tanned with the hair on were used as bedding or robes; these hides were usually harvested in the fall or winter when the hair was the thickest. The women fashioned hides with the hair removed into various articles of clothing, lodge furniture, carrying cases and tipi coverings. Buffalo hair was woven into rope or used to stuff various items such as cradleboards and headrests. Depending on the size of the tipi, it took one dozen to two dozen hides to make a tipi covering. Plains Indian women saved up tanned hides until they had enough hides to sew together to cover the tipi poles. The men furnished the hides and the poles which supported the tipi, but in terms of property the tipi was hers and she took pride in tanning and decorating the tipi covering. 

The buffalo was the commissary of the Plains Indians and virtually nothing was wasted. Buffalo bones and horns were fashioned into cooking utensils and tools, even the hoofs were utilized in making glue. In truth, during the height of hunting season, even the most industrious Plains Indian woman could not keep up with her daily tasks and all the work that needed to be done to process the buffalo. It took the labor of at least two women to keep up with the amount of meat and hides one hunter provided. Usually, every wife had someone to help her - a young girl, an elderly relative, or, additional wives in those tribes that practiced polygamy.