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Show THE ASSINIBOINS----THEIR ARMS-BUFFALO PARKS. 195 and detalium shells, which are used by the Manitaries. Most of the Assiniboins have guns,* the stocks of which they ornament with bright yellow nails, and with small pieces of red cloth on the ferrels for the ramrod. Like all the Indians, they carry, besides, a separate ramrod in their hand, a large powder-horn, which they obtain from the Fur Company, and a leather pouch for the balls, which is made by themselves, and often neatly ornamented, or hung with rattling pieces of lead, and trimmed with coloured cloth. All have bows and arrows; many have these only, and no gun. The case for the bow and the quiver are of the skin of some animal, often of the otter, fastened to each other; and to the latter the tail of the animal, at full length, is appended. The bow is partly covered with elk horn, has a very strong string of twisted sinews of animals, and is wound round in different places with the same, to strengthen it. The bow is often adorned with coloured cloth, porcupine quills, and white strips of ermine, but, on the whole, this weapon does not differ from that of the Sioux. Most of them carry clubs in their hands, of various shapes, and the fan of eagles' or swans' wings is indispensable to an elegant dandy. The Assiniboins being hunters, live in movable leather tents, with which they roam about, and never cultivate the ground. Their chief subsistence they derive from the herds of buffaloes, which they follow in the summer, generally from the rivers, to a distance in the prairie; in the winter, to the woods on the banks of the rivers, because these herds, at that time, seek for shelter and food among the thickets. They are particularly dexterous in making what are called buffalo parks, when a tract is surrounded with scarecrows, made of stones, branches of trees, &c, and the terrified animals are driven into a narrow gorge, in which the hunters lie concealed, as represented and described by Franklin, in his first journey to the Frozen Ocean (page 112). There was such a park ten miles from Fort Union, where I was told there were great numbers of the bones of those animals. On such occasions the Indians sometimes kill 700 or 800 buffaloes. Of the dried and powdered flesh, mixed with tallow, the women prepare the well-known pemmican, which is an important article of food for these people in their wanderings. These Indians frequently suffer hunger, when the chase or other circumstances are unfavourable ; this is particularly the case of the northern nations, the Crees, the Assiniboins, the Chippeways, and others, as may be seen in Tanner, Captain Franklin, and other writers, when they consider dead dogs as a delicacy. In the north, entire families perish from hunger. They eat every kind of animals, except serpents: horses and dogs are very frequently killed for food, which is the reason why they keep so many, particularly of the latter. In comparison with the other nations, the Assiniboins have not many horses; their bridles and saddles are like those of the Manitaries. The rope of buffalo hair, which is fastened to the * The common Mackinaw guns, which the Fur Company obtain from England at the rate of eight dollars a-piece, and which are sold to the Indians for the value of thirty dollars. |