Energy Efficiency in the Old West by Ginger Simpson

Jacquie Rogers usually posts on the 2nd Friday, but she's accompanying a friend to an out-of-state funeral so I thought I would recycle a blog from my personal site to share here.  

In an age where we are concerning about rising fuels costs, going green and saving energy and the earth's resources, I often wonder why builders continue to construct such huge homes.  Does a family a four really need a 4000 square-foot home?  Or is the size of a person's home these days symbolic of their success or failure in life?  I, for one, have decided that I don't need the extra space and much prefer a small home now compared to my 2500 sq. ft. one of 25 years ago.  At the time I had two children living at home, but with just Hubby and me most of the time, I'm happy with a lot less room.  So, let's look at how a family of four might have lived had they been Lakota Sioux back in the 1800s.

For the Plain's Indians, portability was a must.  They migrated from summer to winter camps, following the buffalo herds. Everything the tribe owned was easily packed and readied for travel by horseback.  The poles used to create the tepee structure were used over and over again, and also served as the travois on which personal belongs were loaded, much like a trailer today, and pulled behind the animal.  Upon construction, the tepee usually faced east and had a slight slant in that direction to combat the sometimes prevalent prairie winds.  The door--a flap that when closed, signaled a desire for privacy.  Back in the day, there wasn't a Walmart close by where you could pick up a new rug or liven up the decor, or a Target where you might replace a broken dish.  Since toilet practices aren't discussed in most historical research books, I can't image having my own "on suite" which is now called the adjoining bathroom, thought I definitely would have the open concept so many seek. Alas, no stainless appliances or separate play room for the kids.  Back then it was called outdoors, and it served the purpose all year long.

Buffalo served many purposes for the tribe.  Usually as many as twenty hides covered the pyramid structure, and were held together by wooden lodge pins.  Furry and warm hides also served as bedding and were rolled and stored during the day.  A smoke flap at the top of the tepee could be adjusted to ventilate or retain heat, depending on the season.  Bags known as parfleches and made from animal skins, served as closets and drawers.    Heated stones kept the interior warm, but firewood was kept close at hand when readily available. Carrying wood wasn't just a chore needed for warmth, but as fuel for meals prepared daily.

During the winter months, more skins, sometimes brightly painted to reflect family or tribal history, were added along the bottom to hold in the heat. Tepees were viewed by the Indians as *"a good mother who sheltered and protected her children."

Backrests made from woven willow bark or other materials served as chairs for the family.  Bows, arrows, medicine bags, and other belongings might be suspended on the interior walls.  The woman's sewing bag usually held sinew thread and needle shaped bones, made from the buffalo, and her cooking was done in a buffalo paunch pot.

Unlike the white trappers and traders who killed buffalo for sport and their pelts, the American Indian prized everything about nature and nothing was wasted from their kills.  Every part of the animal served some function necessary to life. Everything from the string on their bows, the fur that sheltered them from cold winter winds and snow, and the bladder in which they toted their water came from one shaggy beast.  When the herds began to disappear, so began the tribe's sojourn into oblivion.    

So, how would you fare living in the 1800s when the heat outside was unbearable or the cold air nipped at your nose even inside your home?  I wonder what Al Gore would have said back then.  Perhaps burning buffalo chips was bad for the ozone, but I guess we'll never know.


*I learned my historical facts from a Reader's Digest book entitled, America's Fascinating Indian Heritage and I've woven some of these facts into a few of my historical novels. There's so much more to share, so stay tuned.

A Day In The Life of a Squaw by Ginger Simpson

First, I'd like to offer the definition of "squaw" as found on Wikipedia:  "Squaw" is an English language word, used as a noun or adjective  whose present meaning is an indigenous woman of North America.  It is derived from the eastern Algonquian morpheme meaning 'woman' that appears in numerous Algonquian languages variously spelled squa, skwa, esqua, sqeh, skwe, que, kwa, ikwe, exkwew, xkwe, etc. At present, the term is often held to be offensive.

I'd like to note that my use of the term in my title is in no way intended to be offensive, rather to pay tribute to the hard-working Indian women of the 1800s as shown by my research as relates to the plains Indians, more specifically, the Sioux.

Imagine the creature comforts we enjoy today...the chores we hate, like cleaning toilets, dusting, grocery shopping, and then imagine yourself a Lakota Woman living in a lodge for which you are solely responsible.  Yes, the men killed the buffalo, but once the animal carcasses littered the land,  the women were charged with butchering the meat and remains into every salvageable piece. 

The buffalo supplied almost all the necessities of the tribe.  As well as being a main source of food, other parts of the animal were utilized as well.  For example, the bladder served as water containers, the bones were fashioned into eating utensils.  The skins were used for a wide variety of purposes.  When a baby was born into the tribe, they were often swaddled in a soft calf skin, and in death, a hide served as a shroud.  

Women sewed hides together to make tepee covers, while others were scraped and softened and used as blankets and clothing.  Drums heads, shields, and rattles came from the thick pelt from the neck, and rawhide was made into ropes and sinew for bow strings.  Even the thread used to sew came from the buffalo. 

 A difference between summer kills and winter kills determined the usage as the animal's fur was longer and thicker during the colder period of time.  Butchering and salvaging the animal was no easy feat, but the constant wetting, drying, stretching, and smoking of the hides to soften them took days and wore many blisters onto a woman's hands.  Weaving the hair provided stuffing for cradleboards, moccasins, and other apparel.  Virtually, nothing was wasted.  This might explain why when the white men started slaughtering the animals for sport, the Indian way of life didn't last much longer.

The tepee belonged to the woman.  She created it, put it together, dissembled it for moving and re-erected it many times.  The amount of skins necessary to construct the lodge depended upon the size...often somewhere between six and twenty-eight pelts.  That's a lot of scraping and preparation.  My little bit of dusting is starting to look good.

Unless a "chore" was befitting a warrior, women were responsible for most of the work.  She wasn't just the person who created the clothing, she also adorned dresses and shirts with beads and quills.  She watched the children, made the meals, pounded the clothing clean on river rocks, and was subservient to her husband.  Divorce in those days came as easy as beating a drum and declaring a man was throwing away his wife, and it wasn't uncommon for polygamy... usually sisters married to the same man because it was believed they got along better than two women from separate families.  

I think the only break an Indian woman got was during the monthly time when the males believed a bleeding woman could zap their spiritual energies and strength.  For this reason, a wife was sent to what was commonly called the "women's hut" until her menses had passed.  Men didn't share a part in the of the birthing of a child either.  The responsibility usually fell to the medicine woman and female relatives of the mother-to-be.  Think giving birth today is difficult?  Imagine squatting over a trough dug into the ground while you labor to deliver your baby.  Of course, a stake was driven into the ground to help the woman maintain her balance and squeeze when the pain became intolerable.  Boy, that doesn't sound like fun, does it?  Give me drugs!

I'm sure I've omitted a lot of what the Indian women lived through, but I can hardly go a day without my curling brush and eye glasses.  I can only imagine the dimmed vision of the elderly who didn't have the modern improvements we enjoy.  Beauty had to be in the eye of the beholder, because skin creams, mascara, and blush were decades away.  Think we have it rough?  Think again.  The Indians were a hardy breed until the white man invaded their land and life and brought along diseases likes small pox and diphtheria. Harken back to all the lies the government told and the acreage they stole.  Next time you're pondering which ethnic race was truly treated unfairly....think about the American Indian.   

I've written a few books about the Indian life:
Destiny's Bride
White Heart, Lakota Spirit
Sarah's Heart/Sarah's Passion (past and present day story) and I'm currently working on Yellow Moon which will relay the story of a young Lakota woman.

I think I was a squaw in another life because of my fascination with the Lakota tribe. You can find my work on Amazon, most available both in print and for your Kindle. Little by little, my offerings are being found on various other sites as well, so if you prefer All Romance eBooks, I'm pretty sure you can find my work there, too.