News Update January 29, 2024 - Thunder on the Plains / Fur Trade (1 Viewer)

[Julie]

JJDESIGNS NEWS UPDATE 29th JANUARY 2024
THUNDER ON THE PLAINS
THE CROW

What started off as a couple of sets inspired by one of my favourite movies, developed into the popular “Fur Trade” and “Thunder On The Plains” Series!

The Crow, called the Apsáalooke in their own Siouan language, or variants including the Absaroka, are Native Americans, who in historical times lived in the Yellowstone River valley, which extends from present-day Wyoming, through Montana and into North Dakota, where it joins the Missouri River.

Pressured by the Ojibwe and Cree peoples (the Iron Confederacy), who had earlier and better access to guns through the fur trade, the Crow had migrated to this area from the Ohio Eastern Woodland area of present-day Ohio, settling south of Lake Winnipeg. From there, they were pushed to the west by the Cheyenne. Both the Crow and the Cheyenne were pushed farther west by the Lakota (Sioux), who took over the territory west of the Missouri River, reaching past the Black Hills of South Dakota to the Big Horn Mountains of Wyoming and Montana. The Cheyenne eventually became allies of the Lakota, as they sought to expel European Americans from the area. The Crow remained bitter enemies of both the Sioux and Cheyenne.

From about 1740, the Plains tribes rapidly adopted the horse, which allowed them to move out on to the Plains and hunt buffalo more effectively. However, the severe winters in the North kept their herds smaller than those of Plains tribes in the South. The Crow, Hidatsa, Eastern Shoshone and Northern Shoshone soon became noted as horse breeders and dealers and developed relatively large horse herds. At the time, other eastern and northern tribes were also moving on to the Plains, in search of game for the fur trade, bison, and more horses. The Crow were subject to raids and horse thefts by horse-poor tribes, including the powerful Blackfoot Confederacy, Gros Ventre, Assiniboine, Pawnee, and Ute.
Their greatest enemies became the tribes of the Blackfoot Confederacy and the Lakota-Cheyenne-Arapaho alliance.

During the Indian wars, scouts were able to detect horse tracks where other soldiers could only detect hard ground. From these tracks, scouts could estimate the number of horses in a group. From the moisture content of horse dung, scouts could estimate the age of the trail. Scouts were also able to discern whether females rode with a group based on the position of a horse's urine within its tracks - women sometimes/often rode mares while men rode stallions.


Signals were done in many ways, there were arm or hand signals, holding a lance, gun or robe. Mirrors or whistles were also used. There were two kinds of signals employed on the plains, those designed for close quarter communication, and those designed for signaling over long distances of a mile or more.
There were 3 long distance methods. The Body action, the action of the signaler in connection with objects, such as a robe, blanket, mirror, flag, lance or by smoke.
Smoke or mirror signals were used in daytime, with the number of flashes or puffs serving as a kind of morse code, and fires placed at intervals in rows accomplished the same thing at night.
Smoke signals were made by letting the smoke rise in a single column, or by slipping a robe or blanket sideways over a fire made with dry wood and green grass or moss thrown on it.
Fire signals were made on high ridges or away from water so that it would be known they were not campfires.

A Travois is a frame structure that was used by the plains Indians of North America, to drag loads over land. There is evidence to support that travois were used in other parts of the world before the invention of the wheel.
Initially the travois was pulled by dogs. The basic dog travois consisted of two aspen or cottonwood poles, notched and lashed together at one end with buffalo sinew, with the other ends splayed apart.
Cross bars are lashed between the poles near the splayed ends, and the finished frame looks like a large letter A with extra cross bars.
The apex of the A, wrapped in buffalo skin to prevent friction burns, rests on the dog’s shoulders, whilst the splayed ends drag over the ground.
Women both built the travois and managed the dogs. Buffalo meat and firewood were typical travois loads.

Women of the tribe were responsible for painting the Parfleche storage and carrying cases. As a rule these cases were rounded or folded twice, stitched up the sides and closed by a round triangular flap over one end. Cases intended to hold sacred medicine objects and bonnets could usually be identified by the long fringes at their sides or bottom. Others without fringes were used to common household articles. Usually cases were painted only on the front side and with a geometric design.

Incapacitated or wounded men could also be transported on a travois.
The dead during a raid were retrieved if possible, but were often buried on the field in shallow graves or under rocks, the other warriors leaving whatever gifts they could to aid them in their journey to the faraway land.
Blackfoot warriors had an unique custom of covering their battlefield dead with the bodies of their enemies. This was said to pay for those who were lost.

 

[Julie]

THE BLACKFOOT

The Niitsiapi, also known as the Blackfoot or Blackfeet Indians, were found in the Great Plains of Montana and the Canadian provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan.
Only one of the Niitsitapi tribes were called Blackfoot, or Siksika.
The name is said to have come from the colour of the peoples’ moccasins.
It is believed that the leather used to make the moccasins came from the soot-stained leather at the top of the wigwam.

Others believe they had dyed or painted the soles of their moccasins black.

One legendary story claimed that the Siksika walked through ashes of prairie fires, which in turn colored the bottoms of their moccasins black.

Historically, the member peoples of the Blackfoot Confederacy were nomadic bison hunters and trout fishermen, who ranged across large areas of the northern Great Plains of western north America. They followed the bison herds as they migrated between what are now the United States and Canada, as far north as the Bow River.
In the first half of the eighteenth century, they acquired horses and firearms from white traders and their Cree and Assiniboine go-betweens. The Blackfoot used these to expand their territory at the expense of neighbouring tribes.

They eventually became a formidable example of the classic Plains Indian culture. They were a powerful force, controlling an area that extended from current day Edmonton, Alberta Province, nearly to Yellowstone Park, and from Glacier Park to the Black Hills of South Dakota.
The Badger-Two Medicine Area is a significant sacred site for the tribe.

Up until around 1730, the Blackfoot traveled by foot and used dogs to carry and pull goods. They had not seen horses, but were introduced to them on the Plains as other tribes, such as the Shoshone, had already adopted their use.
The Blackfoot called the horses Ponokamita (elk dogs). The horses could carry much more weight than dogs and moved at greater speed, and they could be ridden for hunting and travel.

Horses revolutionized life on the Great Plains and soon became to be regarded as a measure of wealth.
Warriors regularly raided other tribes for their best horses, and were generally used as universal standards of barter.
Medicine men were paid for cures and healing with horses, and those who designed shields and war bonnets were also paid in horses.
The individual’s prestige and status was judged by the number of horses that he could give away.

Blackfoot war parties would ride hundreds of miles on raids.
A boy on his first war party was given a derogatory name, but after he had stolen his first horse or killed an enemy, he was given a name to honour him.
Warriors would strive to perform various acts of bravery called “counting coup”, in order to move up in social rank.
The coups in order of importance were;
Taking a gun from a living enemy, and or touching him directly, capturing lances, and bows, scalping an enemy, killing an enemy, freeing a tied horse from in front of an enemy lodge, leading a war party, scouting for a war party, stealing headdresses, shields, pipes (sacred ceremonial pipes) and driving a herd of stolen horses back to camp.


Like many other Great Plains Indian nation, the Niitsitapi often had hostile relationships with white settlers. Despite the hostilities, the Blackfoot stayed largely out of the Great Plains Indian Wars, neither fighting against nor scouting for the United States army.
When the Lakota, Cheyenne and Arapaho were fighting the United States army, they sent runners into Blackfoot territory, urging them to join the fight.
Crowfoot, one of the most influential Blackfoot chiefs, dismissed the messengers and threatened to ally with the NWMP to fight them if they came north into Blackfoot country.
News of Crowfoot’s loyalty reached Ottawa and from there to London. Queen Victoria praised Crowfoot and the Blackfoot for their loyalty.
The Blackfoot also chose to stay out of the Northwest Rebellion. News of the continued neutrality reached Ottawa, where Lord Lansdowne the governor general, expressed his thanks to Crowfoot again on behalf of the Queen back in London.

NEW SETS COMING SOON!

Buffalo robes were also a common painted item, and could be quite glamourous. Often the decorative designs painted or quilled on the robe proclaimed the status of the wearer.
The typical man’s robe of a northern plains Tribes was painted or quilled with a stunning “black warbonnet” pattern which consisted of concentric circles with numerous small radiating fugures each composed of two isosceles triangles and designated by the Indians as “feathers”.
In addition to what was called “the marked male robe”, every warrior of note had a “war record” robe on which he pictured his accomplishments in raiding and war.
In painting war robes, the figures are best described as naturalistic or realistic figures of warriors horses and buffalo and other animals. The style was always bold, simple , shown in profile and without background.
A man either decorated his own robe or secured the service of a more skilled painter to do it for him.
Robe painting has been called “more properly picture writing than art”, and it should be remembered that simple pictorial shorthand served marvelously to tell those who were familiar with the language of the painted figures exactly what a brave man’s claims to distinction were.
It indicted with great economy the number of horses he had stolen from enemy camps on each war party, the number of enemy weapons or other personal equipment he had taken, the number of enemy he had killed or wounded, and the number of times he had served in the responsible position of leader of a war party or as a scout.

The War shield was one of the most important pieces of the warrior’s paraphernalia.
Although it could be punctured by a direct blow, a shield struck at an angle was tough enough to deflect lances, arrows or even a smoothbore ball at mid range. It was considered a most sacred and potent possession. Its painted symbols and the items appended to it had resulted from a vision, and in its manufacture and care the warrior bestowed intense selectivity, craftsmanship and thought.
The decoration and painting of the shield was always accompanied by special ceremonies conducted by medicine men and proven warriors.
A common Sioux practice was for the warrior to sit before the holy man and recount his coups with small sticks, dropping one for each coup, while the holy man painted on designs, prayed over them and sang war songs to affix their power permanently. These services were considered to be worth as many as two fine horses.

Best wishes,
john jenkins

 

[Spanish soldier]

The best thing about this series is the indians. The cavalry and infantry wear real uniforms but they are not flashy like in classic western movies.



Francisco

 

[jason foote]

They are all incredible. I collect everything except the Indians due to cost, space etc but would love a few Apaches.