Tatanka - Buffalo People

I have always been an admirer of the buffalo. This majestic icon of the prairie is one with the history of the Plains People.
Tatanka once roamed the prairie in millions. They provided almost everything for a life on the Plains. A source of spiritual life, food, clothing, shelter, medicine, and raw materials for tools, weapons, regalia and crafts, no part ever was waisted.
For men, hunting buffalo the traditional way, was a social event that needed skillful knowledge, experience, and bravery.
Boys learned from early on the use of the hunting weapons, camouflage, observing the buffalo, and they were educated carefully by their fathers, grandfathers and uncles, before they went on their first hunting experience.
Processing the buffalo into food, and tanning the hides, was a tough women's job. The girls helped their mothers, grandmothers, and aunts preparing the meat, tanning, and cooking the meals.

For you, who would like to read a first hand account of a buffalo hunt, recorded from oral history told by Paul Picotte, a Yankton Dakota man, click here: http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/83/

In our time, buffalo still has an important status in the Dakota and Lakota society.
Many tribes run their own buffalo herds.
Artists like us are learning again the old way of hide tanning, and bone preparation, and are creating many pieces of art from buffalo products.

(to be continued)