A tradition of dedicating a special hide tipi during pre-reservation days was a ceremony using warriors to honor a recently completed tipi. During the Buffalo Days, veteran warriors were asked to imbue a hide tipi with their courage, fortitude, and integrity by walking across the spread-out buffalo hide cover. It was a great honor to be chosen for this occasion. Modern day warriors are military veterans who participated at the Veteran’s Day event at noon on November 18.
Dedicating new buffalo hide tipi with Charly Juchler singing honoring songs, while Jeff Iron Cloud walks behind the lead dancer.
The occasion was for the completion of my 67th hide tipi, before installing it in a Lakota exhibit. The hand-tanned tipi of sinew-sewn nine hides was embellished with full porcupine quillwork of a leader’s lodge. The celebration revived an ancient ceremony while notable Lakota families and veterans were alive to complete the special walk, prior to setting up the hide tipi.
The 14-foot buffalo hide tipi cover is 28 feet across for the walk by each of five warriors, accompanied with singing and drumming of Crazy Horse honoring songs. Each walked barefoot, or with new moccasins, across the hide cover, led by a dancer waving a historic Lakota carved wand (Owanka Onaesto). This ceremonial wand’s swaying was to solemnize the ground for the celebration. Each warrior wore a beaded blanket for their honoring walk.
Prior to a warrior’s walk, each recounted their military experience and Lakota Sioux recounted the deeds of their famous chief ancestors. Jeff Iron Cloud told of his great-grandfather, Knife Chief, “cousin” to Crazy Horse. He fought in the Battle of the Little Bighorn and during the fighting was shot by a soldier. To stop the bleeding, Knife crawled by a plum thicket and used a plum from the bush to plug the hole. Francis White Lance told of his ancestry tied to the line of Crazy Horse. Francis mentioned earning his honorary doctorate, received from research showing Crazy Horse’s family tree. During the dedication, the military branches of the Army, Air Force and Marines were involved.
After the walking ceremony was conducted, the hide cover was placed on a travois and pulled where participants erected the dedicated tipi. The ceremony closed with a meal of buffalo stew and Lakota fry bread. The tipi was packed for its destination to the World Wildlife Heritage Museum in Concord, California.
The journey to making the tipi for the dedication began nearly fifty years earlier. The beginning resulted from a visit with Reginald Laubin about his The Indian Tipi book. I had published my Brain-Tanning the Sioux Way and we discussed a new craze—the Fur Trade Rendezvous. We noted Hobbyists suddenly thirsting for knowledge on how to make lodges and period-correct attire. I mentioned my hope to make a traditional buffalo hide tipi, not a canvas tipi. Laubin responded that no one would make a hide tipi; hides were unavailable and Indian women who knew, died long ago. I took his comment as a challenge and began studying those few existing hide tipis in museum collections. Five covers, none complete, made it difficult to determine how hides were placed to be sewn. A eureka moment came when I noted what seemed to be repairs adjacent to swallowtail fringe. It did not make sense to place fringe by a repair. Then I noticed “repairs” with fringe always on opposite sides by fronts of buffalo hides. It suddenly revealed that buffalo were skinned differently long ago on the front legs and the swallowtail dangle was a result of hide trimmed to join the leg to the neck for “squaring” the hide. I was now able to complete my first tipi, an 18-foot. The St. Louis Arch being built heard of my tipi and wished to purchase it, but discovered my tipi poles were too tall for their museum’s ceiling. They asked for a smaller buffalo hide tipi, which began my interest in creating hide tipis for museums. To honor Laubin’s love, and my interest for the old days, I authored Buffalo Hide Tipi of the Sioux and video Lakota Quillwork, Art and Legend to show beauty and romance of the first Lakota home—the hide tipi.
By Larry Belitz, Plains Indian Material Culture Consultant
December 1, 2023