from the Mohawk and Cayuga tribes.
The year 1785 saw Brant return once again to England, where he managed to secure compensation for Mohawk losses in the War of Independence. He had also wanted to gain a secure holding on the lands that had been granted the tribes, but was unable to do so.
Brant was a keen missionary, and in 1785 he oversaw the building of a small Protestant chapel on the reservation: Her Majesty’s Chapel of the Mohawks is a small wooden building which still stands today, and is the only place of worship with the title “Chapel Royal” outside the U.K. Brant believed that the Mohawk could learn a lot from the Christian faith, and encouraged white settlers onto Mohawk and Iroquois land, believing that the two races would learn from each other; this arrangement was unsettling for some. He also tried to arrange a proper land settlement between the Iroquois and the United States, and fought against further land cessions. He continued with his translations of the Bible up until his death in 1807 in Burlington, Ontario. He is buried at the Chapel of the Mohawks.
BRAVE
The word that used to be used to describe a young Native American male, “brave” was probably first applied by the Spanish explorers and settlers. In Spanish, bravo means wild and untamed, and the phrase Indios Bravos can be found in Spanish writings dating back to their time in the Americas. Whenever a Native American managed to overcome extraordinary hardship, he spoke of himself as having had a “brave time.”
BREASTPLATE
A covering for the chest of male Native Americans, which was both protective and decorative, often made of long beads made of bone; traders called these beads “hair pipes.”
The breastplate was common to the Plains Indians.
BREECHCLOTH
Also called a breech clout, this was the material (often made of deerskin) that protected and covered the loins of a male Native. The breechcloth extended from front to back, looped over a piece of sinew tied at the waist with a length of cloth extending down at either side.
BRULE
The original name of the Brule was Sichanghu, meaning “burned thighs.” The French word brulé means “burned.” The Brule were a division of the Lakota, who were one of the seven tribes of the Sioux Confederation. When the Lewis and Clark Expedition encountered them in 1804, the tribe lived along both sides of the Missouri, Teton, and White Rivers. At the time they numbered about 300.
The chief at the time, Makozaza, was well-disposed toward the Europeans, unlike some members of the larger Lakota tribe.
A hunting tribe, the Brule chased the herds of buffalo; they were able to do this from horseback. The horses were generally wild, and could be caught on the Platte and in Arkansas country.
When the white settlers and prospectors became a regular sight in Dakota country, it was the Brule who suffered the worst ravages of their diseases, which included smallpox and measles, more than any other division of the Sioux. The reason was that the Brule lived closest to the route of the trail. The Treaty of Fort Laramie, signed in 1868, had a strong advocate in the Brule chief Swift Bear; the treaty was meant to restrict the incursions of the settlers but sadly did nothing to alter the course of events, and the settlers continued to flood into Dakota territory.
BUCKSKIN
Although you would think that buckskin would be taken specifically from a male (buck) deer, this is not the case. Buckskin can be made from the hides of several animals, including the elk, the moose, the buffalo, and others.
Buckskin does not rely on tanning agents in the same way as leather does; rather, the rawhide is softened by being treated with smoke. The hair on the outside of the buckskin was sometimes left on, for added warmth and protection as well as beauty.
The process of making buckskin varied a little from tribe to tribe, but the basic technique was always the same. First, the skin needed to be softened; there were several methods of doing this. Sometimes the brains and gristle of an animal were rubbed into the rawhide to soften it; an alternative was to use mashed-up green maize, or eggs, or meal. After softening, the skin was beaten with a stone, stretched, and pummeled. At this point the buckskin would be ready to use: soft, white, and pliable. As such it could be fashioned into women’s dresses, pouches, and bags.
However, this skin, if wet, was liable to become stiff, and so a further process was added. After digging a hollow or pit in the ground, the skin was laid over an arched framework of sticks. A fire, using material such as rotted wood, corn chips, and chips of white cedar, was started in the pit. The buckskin was smoked for a couple of hours, taking on a color depending on the material that was used for the fire. Skins could also be dyed using natural substances: the tannins in oak bark produced an orangey red, whereas peach bark produced a bright red color.
Once finished, smoked buckskin was a very valuable resource: it could be cut and sewed easily, was hard-wearing and beautiful, and retained both its soft texture and its toughness.
BUFFALO
The American bison was renamed “buffalo” by default: early French settlers and fur trappers referred to the animal as boeufs, French for “bullock” or “ox.”
The buffalo was easily the single most important animal to the Plains Indians, and the range of the animal was vast. These huge creatures—which can weigh over 2,000 pounds—occupied the plains and prairies west of the Mississippi from the Canadian border to the Gulf of Mexico. Prior to the commercialization of their hunting and slaughter in the 19th century, there were, literally, millions of buffalo. The animal was driven very close to extinction, and today there are only something in the region of 15,000 buffalo remaining that are considered to be wild. These days, they are restricted to reserves and parks, although the commercialized buffalo industry is another matter.
But not so very long ago, the buffalo provided everything that the Native American needed for survival, and the list of uses to which the animal was put is impressive. The hides provided bedding, clothing, shoes, and the “walls” of tipis. The meat was good, nutritious food. The bones and teeth were used to make tools and also sacred implements. The hooves of the animal could be rendered into glue. Horns made cups, ladles, and spoons. Even the tail of the buffalo made a fly whip. The bones could be used to scrape the skin to soften it, and was also fashioned into needles and other tools. Some tribes used the bone to make bows.
The buffalo provided leather and sinewy “string” for those bows. Even the fibrous dung was used to make fires. The rawhide, heated by fire, thickened; this material was so tough that arrows, and sometimes even bullets, couldn’t penetrate it, so it made an effective shield. This rawhide was used to make all manner of objects: moccasin soles, waterproof containers, stirrups, saddles, rattles and drums for ceremonial purposes, and rope. Rope could also be made from the hair of the buffalo, woven into tough lengths. Even boats were made from buffalo hide, stretched
