bones they make bodkins: of their sinews and haire, threed: of their
hornes, maws, and bladders, vessels: of their dung, fire: and of their
calves-skinnes, budgets, wherein they drawe and keepe water. To bee
short, they make so many things of them as they neede of, or as many
as suffice them in the use of this life." ( Gomara. (1), p. 382.) A
crude engraving of a buffalo made at that time is reproduced in fig-
ure 1.

The preceding account describes the customs of the people then living in the southern part of the region treated in the present sketch, either a Caddoan or a neighboring tribe or group, and it suggests another reference to the great importance of the buffalo, but applying to the tribes of the north more than three centuries later.

FIG. 1. --The buffalo of Gomara, 1554.

"The animals inhabit-
ing the Dakota country,
and hunted more or less
by them for clothing,
food, or for the pur-
poses of barter, are buf-
falo, elk, black-and
white-tailed deer, big-
horn, antelope, wolves
of several kinds, red and
gray foxes, a few beaver
and otter, grizzly bear, badger, skunk, porcupine, rabbits, muskrats,
and a few panthers in the mountainous parts. Of all those just men-
tioned the buffalo is most numerous and most necessary to their
support. Every part of this animal is eaten by the Indian except
the horns, hoofs, and hair, even the skin being made to sustain life
in times of great scarcity. The skin is used to make their lodges
and clothes, the sinews for bowstrings, the horns to contain powder,
and the bones are wrought into various domestic implements, or
pounded up and boiled to extract the fatty matter. In the proper
season, from the beginning of October until the 1st of March, the
skins are dressed with the hair remaining on them, and are either
worn by themselves or exchanged with the traders." ( Hayden, (1),
p. 371.)

In the early days the tribes who occupied a region frequented by
or in the vicinity of the range of the buffalo could and undoubtedly
did kill sufficient numbers to satisfy their various wants and require-
ments, but hunting was made more easy in later times when horses
were possessed by the Indian. Then it became possible for the bands

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