Monday, October 22, 2012

Winter Camp



This is a picture of a Crow Indian camp in Winter. It was taken in Montana in 1908. All I can say is this is a very dreary scene. Not sure how cold it is, but I bet it is nice and toasty in the Tipi.

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5 comments:

  1. I always love your photos, but this one just grabbed at my heart...it's beautiful, haunting!

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  2. Me, I'm a cold weather person and I wouldn't describe this as dreary. As for the Indians outside, my experience is that if you are dressed warmly, and have eaten, it's all good. Good to be in nature, good to have something productive to do, good to be with a friend, and good to have a home.

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    1. That's my reaction as well. I think this is a really neat photo, but it doesn't strike me as dreary. I guess that's because I like weather like this.

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  3. Well it was a rough life for the First Nations people. They were use to it, but winters were still very hard. Tents didn’t have running water or R20 insulation and if any of you have ever used the ‘facilities’ (aka ‘outhouse’) on a cold winter day it’s a most memorable experience!!! Of course they didn’t even have outhouses so it was probably twice as bad. But they were hardy people and it was a way of life that had it’s pros and cons.

    One also has to think of the animals, the horses, Hard life and where would we be if it were not for the ‘horse’ who made our beast of burden on our behalf? In history they transported us and our goods quickly for all occasions from moving where we lived to wars where they probably died in the millions.
    The Native on the right has a trading coat on. The stripes indicated the quality and cost. Hard to see in the photo but a Native could purchase items based on how many pelts (belonging to one animal or another) that they brought to the trading post. The same applied to blankets but their stripes were usually just in one corner of the blanket.

    Getting winter pelts or hunting for the family in the winter was not a piece of cake. It’s one thing hunting in snow that is a few inches deep, but something all together different hunting in snow up to your knees. No radar or GPS either. No real way of knowing if a massive storm was just around the corner.

    Yes it was a hard life….but a good one in other respects.

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    1. Thoughtful response -- and thought provoking. I will reread your comment and relook at the photo. Before I read this, I was just thinking how smokey it would have been in that tipi.

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