OCR Text |
Show 1950: 325). According to Smith ( 1974a: 46) and Fowler ( 1986: 80) all fleshy parts of the deer, except the eyes, were eaten. Today, venison is still a very important source of food among the Utes, and a large portion of the population still hunt deer in season ( 1.2; 3.1; 4.4). In the past, many parts of the deer were used by the Utes. The brains were saved and used for tanning hides ( Lowie 1924: 227; Smith 1974a: 48). The sinew of the legs was used for sewing and making cordage and bows ( Lowie 1924: 233; Titus Oral Interview, American West Center, 1967; Smith 1974a: 108, 48, 38). The skin was tanned for rawhide and buckskin and used for clothing, cordage, horse gear, toys ( 2.1), drums, cradles, weapons, and various containers for food collection and storage, paints, sacred articles, arrows, and for pillows ( Lowie 1924: 216, 218; Smith 1974a: 40, 47, 69- 70, 78, 95- 6, 101- 109, 112- 8, 236). The hair was used to stuff pillows ( Smith 1974a: 40, 103). Dew claws were used to decorate womens' clothing and to make wind chimes or doorway entrance alarms ( Smith 1974a: 39, 74). Ears were used for the heels of moccasins ( Taylor, Pete, Pendelton et al. Oral Interview, American West Center, 1968) and tails for decoration on the tipi ( Smith 1974a: 39). The bones had multiple uses, including needles and awls from bones of a deers hind leg, hidescrapers were deer shin bones, canes for the handgame were deer phalanges, and other bones were pounded and boiled and the fat was skimmed off the water for food ( Lowie 1924: 227; Stewart 1942: 253, 265; Smith 1974a: 49, 100, 230). From historic times until the present, the Utes have been well known for their skills in tanning and the quality of their hides. In the past, these were secured widely not only by European and American traders/ trappers in the region, but also by neighboring Indian populations with whom the Utes traded ( 4.1; Sloane 1950: 319; O'Neil 1968: 316; O'Neil and MacKay 1979: 3- 5; Pettit 1990: 56). One early observer, Rufus Sage ( quoted in Creer 1947: 76) wrote about the Ute in the Uintas that they: " Furnish some of the best finished sheep and deer skins I ever beheld, a single skin sometimes being amply sufficient for common sized pantaloons. These skins are dressed so neatly as frequently to attain a snowy whiteness, and possess the softness of velvet. They may be purchased for the trifling consideration of eight or ten charges of ammunition each, or two or three awls, or any other thing of proportional value. Skins are very abundant in these parts as the natives, owing to the scarcity of buffalo subsist entirely upon small game which is found in immense quantities." Even today, the Utes hold a reputation among other Indian nations, including the Lakota ( Albers Field Notes 1987), as a source for quality 78 |